
Dr. Marc Jarzebowski
Genealogy – History – Life
Professional Familyresearch
since 2004

Blog
Saxony-Anhalt Address Directories
A New Find Some time ago, I located an address directory for the small town of Gernrode in the Harz Mountains from 1905 in the city archives of Quedlinburg. It is only a thin booklet with about 60 pages, but was of great importance for one of my numerous researches in...
First time. Research in Lübeck
A long List As a family researcher, I have traveled quite far in Germany in the 15 years of my work. The share of online work is getting higher and higher, but visits to archives are always necessary and in demand. Hamburg, Hanover, Leipzig, Rostock, Bremen,...
Catholic Church Records in Brandenburg
Church Structures Brandenburg was strongly Lutheranized by the Reformation and strongly secularized by the GDR. Nevertheless, there were and still are Catholic parishes in the federal state, which surrounds the capital Berlin on all sides. Today's Catholic structures...
The new Old State Library
State Library Construction Site Much has been said about the longest and largest construction site in Berlin: the new BER airport. In the meantime, it is in operation, albeit more poorly than well. Another major construction site has taken at least as long. For 16...
Jewish Congregations in Philadelphia
Homeward It was great to come home this May and walk the streets of Philadelphia again. Virtually, at least. I have felt very connected to the city with its long immigration history since I immigrated there myself with my family, at least for a year, in June 2007....
The Column of the Prisoners
The column Since 2000, a stele made of basalt lava, wrapped in a heavy, rusty chain, has stood in Berlin-Lichterfelde at Wismarer Strasse 26-36 on the Teltow Canal. This Column of Prisoners by the Rhineland-Palatinate sculptor Günther Öllers (1925-2011) commemorates a...
Lars von Trier: Zentropa (1991)
Curfew My book of the month this time is a movie. A few days ago I watched it – in this cinema-less time – in the home cinema of a friend's household. A group of people are pressuring the young conductor Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr) to make an unscheduled stop of...
Jewish Communities in Saxony-Anhalt
The Beginnings The territory of the modern federal state of Saxony-Anhalt belongs to the oldest Jewish settlement areas in Germany. Jewish merchants are mentioned in chronicles and in royal charters for the episcopal towns of Magdeburg, Merseburg and Halle as early as...
Oppressive Architecture: the Nazi Hulk
Images and memory It's still winter and corona lockdown in Berlin. So there are not many opportunities to go to places other than one's own desk. What would we be in such times without the power of memory and without our memory aids: in the visual age these are photos...
Holocaust Remembrance
Today Today, January 27th, is the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust. It was established in 2005 by the United Nations (UN), which thus took up the day of remembrance of the victims of Nazism. It has been marked in Germany since 1997, on...