A new Aachen city centre was thrown up after the war, which reconstructed most of the old buildings. Many of the original buildings in the centre that were reminiscent of the rich, Jewish life have been lost forever. The city hall’s Krönungssaal still contains 19 th century frescoes by Alfred Rethel (1816-1859) and copies of regalia and of the Gothic and Baroque interior. The new Aachen theatre stages operas, plays, dance performances and concerts. The Roman hot springs have been reinstated, and are now used as healing baths.
Some of the buildings where Anne used to live survived the war. The urban villa at 5 Liebfrauenstrasse (renamed 5 Elsa-Brändström- Strasse in 1937) was damaged heavily during an air raid but was restored after WWII. Rosa’s place at 42-44 Monheimsallee did not make it through the war and was replaced by a lawn in a park.
A monument next to the new synagogue commemorates the destruction of the old one (currently 23 Synagogenplatz). The Jewish community has shrunk considerably, and now comprises only 500 members. Many people refuse to learn from history: Jews are still being harassed in many places, with Aachen no exception. There will always be frustrated people who take out their frustrations on minorities. The Aachen synagogue was plastered with swastikas in the night of 4 July 2011.
At 1 Pastorplatz, Stolpersteine (cobble stones) have been installed in the pavement in memory of Anne, Margot and Edith who died (i.e. were murdered) in Nazi concentration camps. 21 The brass plates were 5 made on the initiative of the Anne-Frank Grammar School in Aachen by the artist Günter Demnig (born in 1947) on the occasion of Anne’s 80 th birthday in 2009. Such monuments are slightly raised in comparison to other stones, and may cause one to trip, raising awareness of the surrounding buildings whose former residents were murdered by the Nazis. Stolpersteine were made for the Nazi victims: their name, as well as the date and place they were killed (mostly in concentration camps), are engraved on the Stolpersteine. 22 The area surrounding 1 Pastorplatz has become quite decrepit over the course of time. On a Sunday afternoon, I saw homeless people, worn-out benches and an old phone booth. There is a heavy iron gate in front of the building. An iron roll-down shutter serves to discourage burglars. The name plates indicate that a number of entrepreneurs are located at 1 Pastorplatz.
One may find various references to Anne in Aachen, such as public buildings named after her. Students of the Anne Frank Grammar School read her diary and have visited the Secret Annex in Amsterdam. 23 On what would have been Anne Frank’s 80 th birthday in 2009, the Anne Frank Grammar School, the Aachen police force and the Volkshochschule Aachen, its general secondary school, participated in a day of projects on the theme of National Socialism. 24 Plays based on The Diaries are being staged: in 2007, the Grenzlandtheater Aachen 25 staged such a play for the Anne-Frank Grammar School. Although Anne’s memory is alive amongst the younger generation, there is no prominent statue of Anne anywhere in Aachen—as in Frankfurt am Main.
1 Anne Frank Verhaaltjes, en gebeurtenissen uit het Achterhuis. Met de roman in wording Cady’s leven (Amsterdam, 2005), p. 70. English edition: Tales from the Secret Annex. Including her Unfinished Novel Cady’s Live (Halban Publishers, 2010).
2 Carol Ann Lee. Anne Frank. Het leven van een jong meisje [The life of a Young Girl. The Definitive Biography] (Amsterdam, 2009), p. 71.
3 http://www.freebase.com/view/en/abraham_hollander .
4 Not to be confused with the current 5 Liebfrauenstrasse, Eschweiler, Germany.
5 Melissa Müller, Anne Frank. De biografie (Amsterdam, 1998), p. 88. Original German edition: Das Mädchen Anne Frank. Die Biographie . English edition: Anne Frank. The Biography (Macmillan, 2013).
6 Other sources state that Rosa lived on Monheimsallee since the death of her husband in 1928 ( http://www.wgdv.de/wege/monheimsallee.htm , (German only).
7 http://www.jhm.nl/cultuur-en-geschiedenis/woordenlijst/c/chanoeka (Dutch only), English summary on http://www.jhm.nl/culture-and-history/glossary/h/hanukkah
8 http://werelderfgoedfotos.nl/fotos/119-dom-van-aken.html .
9 http://www.aachen.de/EN/ts/140_museums/140_70.html .
10 Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen [Jews in Aachen] (Aachen, 1988), p. 125 (German only).
11 Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 122 (German only).
12 http://www.aachen.de/de/kultur_freizeit/pdf_kultur_freizeit/gedenktafeln.pdf .
13 An address book states that Rosa lived on Monheimsallee in 1934 (Email from the Stadtarchiv Aachen [Municipal Archives], 24 November 2010).
14 Emails from the Stadtarchiv Aachen [Municipal Archives], 23 November 2010 and 24 November 2010.
15 Original German slogans: ‘Juda verrecke!’, ‘Kauft nicht bei Juden!’ and ‘Juden den Tod!’ Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 34 (German only).
16 Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 51 (German only).
17 Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 51 (German only).
18 Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988) , p. 85 (German only).
19 http://www.holocaust.cz/en/victims/PERSON.ITI.596766 .
20 Manfred Bierganz and Annelie Kreutz, Juden in Aachen (Aachen, 1988), p. 72 (German only).
21 Murder would imply an active act. In the case of the Jews, however, I still refer to this as murder.
22 http://www.stolpersteine.com/start.html .
23 http://www.anne-frank-gymnasium.de/?page_id=6 (German only).
24 http://www.vhs-aachen.de/ (German only). 5
25 http://www.grenzlandtheater.de/ (German only).
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