Honored Like a Saint, Treated Like a Dog

Dewezet, September 8, 2006
Christa Koch
Reprinted by permission of the author

Dr. David Brown, Josef Specmann and Harold Brown. Photo: Dana Pollock

HAMELIN—He was something akin to a saint in Hamelin—this doctor, friend of man and last president of the pre-war Jewish congregation of Hamelin. Dr. Siegmund Kratzenstein died in the late autumn of 1938 as a direct result of massive abuse inflicted on him at the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald. The then 16-year-old gardener's apprentice Josef Speckmann was responsible for preparing the grave for the beloved doctor.

On September 7th, Dr. Kratzenstein's family: Harold Brown, husband of granddaughter, Eva, and their son, great-grandson Dr. David Brown set the stone at the Hamelin Jewish Cemetery. The stone setting was the culmination of research from local historian Bernhard Gelderblom and present congregational president Rachel Dohme. The catalyst was a phone call from the now 83-year-old Speckmann to Mrs. Dohme. He said, “I was in the hospital and had time to put my life in order. Unable to sleep, I turned on the TV one night and who should I see but Mrs. Dohme talking about the newly formed Jewish congregation in Hamelin. I realized I needed to contact her and set things straight.”

Speckmann called and at a meeting in Hamelin showed her the exact spot where he had secretly buried the good doctor so long ago. “I was no hero. My boss appealed to my sense of humanity.” Speckmann resists any words of praise for his actions. On a dark night in November 1938, he set out with wheelbarrow and lantern and prepared the grave, picking the safest spot so that he would not be observed while he worked.

Speckmann feels he had an “unusually attentive partner” in Mrs. Dohme. She praises Mr. Gelderbloms research and together another piece of the Hamelin Holocaust puzzle could be solved. Mrs. Dohme found Dr. Kratzenstein's family, the Browns, and worked with them to arrange their visit this September from far-away Australia.

As so it was that Harold and David Brown set a simple black granite stone in memory of Dr. Siegmund Kratzenstein. “He always served his congregation. He was a physician and was most probably aware that he was dying. It is good to know that this community took every risk in order to bury him then,” added Dr. David Brown in a trembling voice.

Grandson-in-law Harold Brown was very moved by the ceremony. “I've learned so much more here about this wonderful man who was my wife's grandfather. He was so many things to so many people, and I am comforted to learn what his community did for him. We all owe him honor and respect. I am absolutely certain that he would be satisfied to know that his name is preserved after almost 70 years.”