Memorial for Nazi era 'dejudification institute' unveiled

People stand around an installation during the official inauguration of a memeorial in remembrance of the Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life during the Third Reich in Eisenach, Germany, Monday, May 6, 2019. The words at the memorial read: 'We have gone astray'. The Institute was a cross-church establishment by some German Protestant churches during the Third Reich, founded at the instigation of the German Christian movement. It was set up in Eisenach under Walter Grundmann in 1939. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

People look to an installation during the official inauguration of a memeorial in remembrance of the Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life during the Third Reich in Eisenach, Germany, Monday, May 6, 2019. The Institute was a cross-church establishment by some German Protestant churches during the Third Reich, founded at the instigation of the German Christian movement. It was set up in Eisenach under Walter Grundmann in 1939. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

BERLIN – High-ranking officials of Germany's Lutheran church have inaugurated a memorial for the so-called "dejudification institute" that was founded 80 years ago to eliminate all Jewish influence from Christian life in the country then run by the Nazis.

Lutheran Bishop Ilse Junkermann unveiled the memorial Monday in the eastern German town of Eisenach in conjunction with several members of state Lutheran churches from across Germany whose predecessor organizations founded the institute in 1939.

The institute had aimed to delete all positive references about Jews in the bible and to push out Jewish converts from the church.

The memorial, a two-meter-tall (yard) metal board, shares information on the dejudification institute.

One inscription says the institute's employees had sought to justify "the persecution and million-fold murder of Jewish citizens."