Old Irving Park neighbors push to rename Kolmar Park to honor German-Jewish author killed in the Holocaust

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Neighbors are pushing for a Northwest Side park to be renamed after an influential German-Jewish author and poet who died in the Holocaust.

Kolmar Park, 4143 N. Kolmar Ave., is named for the street on which it sits. Kolmar Avenue got its name from a town on the border of France and Germany, according to the Chicago Park District website. Kolmar was the name of two towns in Germany, but after World War I in 1919 changed the borders, the towns separated and now have different names.