Working Group & Friends Association

Commitment, remembrance and educational work at the historical site

For many years, the history of the Adass Yeshurun community and the Jawne High School, as well as Erich Klibansky’s rescue operation was virtually unknown in Cologne.
Since 2003, however, in a gallery room adjacent to the former schoolyard, information about the school and its everyday life, the rescue of children with transports to England, but also the end of the school, the Nazi persecution, and related topics is being presented.

The exhibition was initiated by Irene Corbach. The couple Dieter (died 1994) and Irene Corbach had already been able to enforce the name “Erich-Klibansky-Platz” for the former schoolyard and with the “Löwenbrunnen” (Lions Fountain) also a memorial for the deported and murdered Jewish children from Cologne.

Irene Corbach died in 2005. Since then, a voluntary working group has been continuing the work by a wide range of activities.

Since 2013, the non-profit friends association (Förderverein Lern- und Gedenkort Jawne e.V.) has been existing. Its purpose is the preservation and promotion of the Memorial and Educational Center as well as the support of the working group and its activities on various levels.

The working group of the Jawne Memorial and Educational Center

  • shows a permanent exhibition in a gallery room adjacent to the former, historical schoolyard.
  • offers educational programs for school classes and other interested groups.
  • organizes in its premises lectures, film screenings, book presentations, exhibitions, events with contemporary witnesses, small concerts and educational events of various kind.
  • keeps in touch with the surviving former students of the Moriah- and the Jawne schools and their descendants living in the UK, USA, Israel, Canada and other countries.
  • develops special exhibitions and educational materials on the history of the Jawne and related subjects.
  • researches the rescue operation initiated by principal Erich Klibansky and other initiatives for the rescue of children and youths during National Socialism in the region of Rhineland and Westphalia as well as on a transregional level.
  • organizes commemorative events in the former schoolyard of the Jawne on January 27 and November 9 each year. This happens in close cooperation with schools and students from Cologne and surrounding areas.
  • collects and researches documents on the history of the institutions that were located in former St.-Apern-Strasse 29-31 and the people who taught and learned there or were connected to this place in some other way.
  • cooperates in project contexts with memorial sites, initiatives, institutions and individuals from Cologne, Germany and abroad.

Donations

For our work we are very much dependent on donations. A donation receipt will be sent automatically at the beginning of the year.

Bank account

Name Foerderverein Lern- und Gedenkort Jawne e.V.
IBAN DE27 3705 0198 1931 3212 42
BIC COLSDE 33