Enlarge

Manfred Swarsenky, 1939

A portrait of young Rabbi Manfred Swarsensky, taken shortly after his release from a concentration camp. View the original source document: WHI 88085

Rabbi Manfred Swarsensky was a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust who settled in Madison, Wisconsin, after World War II.

Manfred Erich Swarsensky was born to a rural family in Marienfliess, Germany (Prussia), on October 22, 1906, where his family had lived for many generations. He was educated in Lutheran theology during his primary school years. Between 1925-1932, Manfred did rabbinical study at Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Academy for Jewish Studies) in Berlin while simultaneously pursuing a Ph.D. in Semitics at the University of Wurzburg.

Upon ordination, Manfred was appointed to serve as a rabbi in Berlin's large Jewish community. He used his sermons to speak out against the Nazi regime from the time of its rise to power in 1933. Following the anti-Jewish rioting of Kristallnacht on November 9-10, 1938, Rabbi Swarsensky was sent to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen. In spite of hard labor, humiliation, and torture, he was able to offer comfort to his fellow inmates. Three months later, the rabbi was unexpectedly offered freedom on the condition that he leave the country.

Rabbi Swarsensky arrived in the United States in July 1939, after spending several months in Holland and England. In 1940, after a brief stay in Chicago, he accepted a post at a newly organized Reform congregation, Beth El Temple, in Madison, Wisconsin. He remained there until 1976. Rabbi Swarsensky was instrumental in helping many other Holocaust survivors reach Wisconsin and re-establish their lives. In 1952, he married Ida Weiner of Chicago, with whom he raised two children. The rabbi died in Madison on November 10, 1981, the 43rd anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Manfred Swarsensky, Oral History Interview

Manfred's Testimony

Listen to Manfred Swarsensky tell his story to the Wisconsin Historical Society interviewer.

Learn More

Oral Histories: Wisconsin Survivors of the Holocaust

Hear the stories of 22 Holocaust Survivors and two American witnesses interviewed between 1974 and 1981.