On Monday afternoon, 9 November, a group of local residents and dignitaries gathered along the road to La Mulata to witness the official opening of the Herman Strauss park.
A glass plaque has been included on the site, as well as a number of trees and plants that are indigenous to the Dominican Republic.
A number of Jewish families living in Sosúa were also present to mark this auspicious occasion.
These included the complete family Katz, and of course Herman Strauss and his wife, sons and daughters-in-law.
Several of Mr Strauss' sons travelled from Santo Domingo to participate in this event.
Herman Strauss park
The commander of the traffic police (AMET) was also present, as well as representatives of the German, English, Dutch and Canadian communities living in Sosúa.
The Herman Strauss park has been established in honour of Mr Strauss, who has done (and still does) so much for the town.
His charitable foundation does a lot of good work for the local community and his former dairy/meat plant 'Productos Sosúa' provided jobs for many local people.
The social policy at the company is still renowned.
The management of the Tractor del Norte company and the SOMONCA foundation considered that Mr Strauss, as an important and socially-responsible resident, should be honoured with his own park.
Tractor del Norte received permission to convert the area around the first Jewish house in Sosúa into a community nature park.
The ecological SOMONCA foundation provided the indigenous plants, bushes and trees.
The park and its monument will be maintained in the future by local schoolchildren, who will also learn about the plants and trees grown in the Dominican Republic.
Of course local residents can also sit on the park benches and enjoy the surrounding greenery.
This park is built around the remains of first house that was built for Jewish refugees in 1938 by the DORCA foundation.
The Dominican Republic was the only country in the world that agreed to accept 200,000 Jewish refugees.
In the end only 700 arrived safely.
The location of these Jewish settlements along the north coast resulted in the eventual creation of Sosúa town.
Many Jewish families moved to the USA or Israel after the war, but others (including the families Kirchheimer, Katz, Hess and Strauss) remained in Sosúa where they became popular members of the community.
So, the Herman Strauss park was officially opened on 9 November - a date chosen because, back in 1938, this became known as Crystal Night, when hundreds of thousands of Jewish families fled from the Hitler and Goebels regime.
On this night alone, 91 Jews died and hundreds were heavily wounded.
Many more were humiliated, terrified and taken to specially-built concentration camps, where they were kept under barbaric conditions and tortured.
Over 7000 Jewish businesses were destroyed or set on fire while throughout Germany, and over 175 synagogues were set alight or otherwise destroyed.
The fire department was forbidden to put out these fires.
This ensured that many Jews fled to other countries, including the 700 who found a safe haven in the DR.
Herman Strauss park
The Strauss family also fled Germany and eventually arrived in Sosúa in 1948, where they lived in the house up in La Mulata.
The plaque that is installed in the park was unveiled by Herman Strauss and Bennie Katz, and shows (on one side) a splintered Star of David, to depict the terrible things that happened on Crystal night.
However, the other side contains a message of hope that the Dominican Republic entailed a new future for the Jewish refugees.
Here there was no racism, or discrimination and people were evaluated according to their behaviour.
With the opening of this new Herman Strauss park, the people of Sosúa are honouring all Jewish refugees, and particularly the Strauss family, for their continuing efforts to support the development and future of Sosúa.
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