A cultural leader
Dr Heinrich Levinger

Alongside lectures and concerts, the Jewish Cultural Confederation of the Rhine and Ruhr gave pride of place to theatre performances. Both in-house and guest productions by other regional cultural associations were presented – usually at the Bürgergesellschaft on Appellhofplatz or in the Rheinlandhalle on Cäcilienstrasse.

Gestapo officers were always present to check whether the event had been authorised by the ministry in Berlin. Supposedly, German composers and writers increasingly had to be removed from the programme. At the end of 1938, all regional Jewish cultural associations were fused into a single central organisation, the Union of Jewish Cultural Associations of the German Reich with headquarters in Berlin. In September 1941, the work of the association in the Rhineland was prohibited altogether. Dr Heinrich Levinger, who in his position as head of the Jewish Cultural Confederation of the Rhine and Ruhr had written an outspoken programme note in October 1934, became first deputy chairman of that central organisation.

Audio recorded later.