Memorial Bernheim Augsburg

An "Erinnerungsband" (memorial pole) was placed for Wolfgang BERNHEIM in Augsburg at the St. Stephen Monastery on May 18, 2018.

"Stephansplatz 6
Lived here
Wolfgang BERNHEIM
born on 7-5-1923 in Augsburg
arrested on 26-8-1942 in Vaals / Nl
deported from the Westerbork camp / Nl. on 28-8-1942
murdered in Sakrau forced labor camp
in October/November 1942"

In 1933 Wolfgang attended St. Stephan Benedictine secondary school, and in 1937 he attended boarding school there.
In 1938, a few days after the pogrom, all Jewish students had to leave German schools by order of the ministry. His father was able to flee to Switzerland. He was not allowed to leave and went to live with his stepmother in Munich. She managed to place him in a Dutch Benedictine monastery near Aachen. After his studies he remained in this monastery as a novice, but even as a monk he was not safe there.
In 1940 the Wehrmacht also conquered the Netherlands and prepared the deportation of the Dutch Jews. In 1942, Wolfgang left the monastery on the orders of the German occupiers. He was taken to Westerbork camp and put on the train to Auschwitz.
Along the way, all men between the ages of 15 and 50 were thrown off the train and transferred
sent to the Sakrau camp in Silesia for forced labor. There he succumbed as a result of the inhumane working conditions.

Since 2010, Wolfgang Bernheim has been honored as a martyr by the Catholic Church.
His name is also listed in the memorial space for Jewish Holocaust victims in Augsburg's town hall.
(Gedenkbuch Augsburg)