and the new IKGN Synagogue on Arno Hamburger Street*
Parashat Vayikra (ויקרא – and he called) Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26
The parashah details the prescriptions relating to offerings and sacrifices.
Parshat Zachor (זכור – Remember) Deuteronomy 25:17-19
זכור, את אשר-עשה לך עמלק
Remember what Amalek did to you
It is a Torah obligation to read Parshat Zakhor on the Shabbat preceding Purim.
At the Nuremberg trials, the Nazi Streicher declares that he himself gave the order, in August 1938, to destroy the Great Synagogue of Nuremberg. On October 16, 1946, of the twelve sentenced to death, ten were hanged, the other two condemned committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule, one in 1945 in Berlin and the other a few hours before his execution in his cell. On the scaffold, Streicher behaves without dignity. As he climbs the stairs, he stares at the forty or so witnesses** and shouts “It’s Purim” (see Sacha Simon’s testimony).
תּמחה את-זכר עמלק, מתחת השמים
You will erase the memory of Amalek from under the sky
The bodies are cremated and their ashes scattered in the Pegnitz River, to prevent their graves from becoming gathering places.
* Arno Siegfried Hamburger (1923-2013): in 1972, he was the first president of the Jewish Community of Nuremberg (IKGN) and a municipal councillor.
** The witnesses: German Minister of Justice Wilhelm Hoegner, Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, Doctor Leistner, two American journalists, two English, two Russian and two French, including Sacha Simon and four generals, including General Morel , for France.