Lilienthal, Saul

Senior cantor of the Jewish community, religious teacher, publisher

Born: 14.10.1877 in Jerutten (East Prussia)

Died: 30.10.1944 in Auschwitz concentration camp

Lilienthal took up his first post as a cantor in Berlin at the end of the 19th century. He took part in the First World War as a volunteer and was seriously wounded. This was followed by positions in Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Poznan and Freiburg until he moved to Wiesbaden with his family. He taught at public schools here from 1925 and held the post of senior cantor at the main synagogue on Michelsberg. His synagogue concerts with choir attracted national attention.

However, Lilienthal did not limit himself to his work as head cantor and religious teacher, but also founded the "Jewish weekly newspaper for Nassau" around 1925, which he published together with Henry Spett for around a decade. In 1938, Lilienthal succeeded in publishing the book "Jüdische Wanderungen in Frankfurt am Main, Hessen und Hessen-Nassau" - one of the last printed confessions of a German Jew to his homeland. From 1936, he worked at the provisional Jewish school in Mainzer Straße.

Together with the lawyer Berthold Guthmann, he also organized the escape of fellow Jews from the National Socialists abroad. Together with his wife Berta and his sons, he tried to survive the persecution and not abandon "his community" in Wiesbaden. It was not until 1939 that he and his wife fled to Amsterdam. In September 1943, Lilienthal was deported from the Westerbork collection camp to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp on October 30, 1944. The fate of Berta Lilienthal has not yet been clarified. Her son Lebrecht and his family perished in the Sobibór concentration camp. Sons Theodor and Felix Lilienthal were able to emigrate and survived. Both became rabbis.