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Acknowledgments In spite of our reliance on technology, a project of any kind takes people to succeed, and a project that deals with the fate of human beings and requires a detailed understanding of how a particular local system functions, even more so. Most important for the success of this kind of project are those people who have intimate knowledge of the sources—people who direct and work in archives and libraries in a variety of lands. They are the true heroes of studies such as this, for without their cooperation and help there would be no project. While it is true that research often takes place in isolation, the work prior to sitting in a cubicle with a bunch of dusty folders or newspapers is not the researcher’s, but the expert’s, who first locates the sources. And as this project has taught me, eyewitnesses are also indispensable. They, too, are heroes, though of a different kind from archivists and librarians—adding a voice of humanity. Eyewitnesses are the clothes that dress the skeleton of documents that are so essential, yet not sufficient. Nearly fifty years ago I emigrated to the United States, much as a number of Süssen citizens had done since the nineteenth century, some of whom attained success. The credit for maintaining contact for nearly half a century belongs to my classmate from elementary school Gerda Schwenger, née Stahl, who doggedly wrote and called many times over the years. Another classmate and good childhood friend, Beate Lehle, née Ziegler, also sent signs of life periodically. In this way, contact was not entirely broken even after my parents died in 1977 and 1978. Although I envisioned this study about thirty-five years ago, it began in earnest with a find in a used bookstore in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the spring of 1993. While in Knoxville, interviewing for the newly created Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee, one of my future colleagues, Dr. Rosalind Gwynne, took me to McKay’s, a used bookstore, to show me their Judaica collection. Among the books I found a volume in English with a blue cover F5756.indb ix F5756.indb ix 4/30/12 7:49:33 AM 4/30/12 7:49:33 AM x | Acknowledgments that bore a gold chai (Hebrew letters yud and chet, meaning life as well as the number 18) on the front that dealt with the Jews of Württemberg.1 In it I found confirmation for the seeming mirage I had carried in my head since my childhood in Süssen, Germany, that there had been Jews living in Süssen until the Holocaust. I recall my mother’s telling me so when I was a child. When, after living in the United States for fifteen years, I returned to Süssen for a visit, my mother showed me a historical study of Süssen, published on the occasion of the 900th anniversary of the town in 1971. Alas, there was no sign of any Jewish presence in it. Nor was I able to elicit any clear answers from anyone on anything related to Jews in Süssen. Today I understand that it would not have been possible in 1971 to publish information on the Jewish citizens of Süssen, it was barely possible in most of Germany to speak about things connected with the Holocaust. The teaching of the Holocaust in German schools did not begin until the 1970s. As my mother died after my visit, finding this book in Knoxville was the first evidence I had that I had not been hallucinating. Now, for the first time, I had a few names, though not yet any faces to put with the vague memory of whispers about the Jewish families and the euthanasia victims who had lived in Süssen. It nevertheless took five more years and the completion of several other projects before I could seriously look into the reality behind this lingering mystery. Much to my surprise, I was neither the first nor the only person interested in the subject. The village of Süssen, now under the leadership of an enlightened mayor who was born after the Holocaust, had taken the initiative in 1983 to create an exhibition and accompanying Dokumentation for the citizens to revisit the fifty years since Süssen was unified in 1933. Assembled by the Volkshochschule (adult education institute...

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