before the court hearing. [18] It is known from Jewish citizens of Blomberg that the Königsheim family went to Argentina under pressure from the Nazis emigrated. The last Jewish resident of Blomberg was 70-year-old Emma Lippert, née Examus, who was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and on to Minsk , where she was murdered. Since then there has been no Jewish community in Blomberg. The simple half-timbered synagogue from 1808 is now used as the city archive. The cityscape of Blomberg survived the Second World War largely unscathed. At the beginning of April 1945, the Americans crossed the Teutoburg Forest and reached Detmold. Further east, in the area to the right of Reichsstrasse 1, the US 83rd Infantry Division operated and pushed northeast through Blomberg. US soldiers cleared the anti-tank barriers at the dairy and did not encounter any significant resistance since the SS units had left the city earlier. Blomberg was handed over by the mayor on April 5, 1945 and occupied by the Americans without a fight while their tanks continued to Hagen and Lügde . During World War II, 205 Blombergers were killed and 105 are missing. Post-war and present From 1945 to 1952, Blomberg had to take in a total of 1,500 displaced persons from the Baltic States. In 1957, the Phoenix Contact company set up its headquarters in Blomberg. From 1962 to 1996, a Dutch unit of 1,600 soldiers and their family members were stationed on behalf of NATO in the so-called Nederlandspark in the south of the Blomberg industrial area. They formed a not inconsiderable economic factor for the city. In 1970 this was done by the Bielefeld Lawthe municipal reorganization, in the course of which a total of 17 previously independent municipalities were assigned as districts to the core city of Blomberg. The number of inhabitants has almost doubled and grew from 7761 to 15,299 people. The core town is not only the administrative centre for Blomberg, but also serves as a medium-sized centre for an area with up to 60,000 inhabitants. In 1973, planning began for a comprehensive redevelopment of the historic city centre. The official completion of the work was the unveiling of the Alheyd fountain on the market square in 1989. On March 7, 2005, French President Jacques Chirac and Federal Chancellor Schröder met in the Burghotel Blomberg. In 2008 Blomberg celebrated the 725th anniversary of the founding of