Jews in Cologne
As early as 321 AD, an edict by the Emperor Constantine allowed Jews to be elected to the City Council. The first pogrom against the Jews was in 1349, when they were used as scapegoats for the Black Death, and therefore burnt in an auto de fe. In 1424 they were evicted from the city, but were allowed back again in 1798.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Jewish population of Cologne was about 20,000. By 1939, 40% of the city's Jews had emigrated. The vast majority of those who remained had been deported to concentration camps by 1941. The trade fair grounds next to the Deutz train station were used to herd together the Jewish population for deportation to the death camps and for disposal of their household goods by public sale.
On Kristallnacht in 1938, Cologne's synagogues were violated or set on fire.
Read more about this topic: History Of Cologne
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“... the histories of Blacks and Jews in bondage and out of bondage, have been blood histories pursued through our kindred searchings for self-determination. Let this blood be a stain of honor that we share. Let us not now become enemies to ourselves and to each other.”
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“We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.”
—Bible: New Testament, Galatians 2:15-16.
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