Memorial to the Jews of Zelem
The memorial for the Jews of Zelem commemorates the Jewish community in the market town of Deutschkreutz in Burgenland, which was expelled in 1938 . It was built and unveiled in 2012. The location is in front of the former home of the composer Karl Goldmark . The memorial was initiated by Michael Feyer .
History of the Jews of Zelem
Deutschkreutz was called Zelem (also Zehlem ) by Jews , because the place name contains the term cross - a term which, in the perception of Jews, stands for the brutal oppression in the Roman Empire and for the bloody crusades of the Roman Catholic Church and the devout Talmudic followers were not allowed to pronounce. Zelem was once the largest Jewish community in Burgenland and from 1676 was one of the seven communities under the protection of the Esterházy family .
The regional historian Adalbert Putz writes that from the 14th century Jews lived and acquired property in many communities in what is now Burgenland. Expulsions from Carinthia and Styria, but also expulsions from Vienna, Lower Austria and Moravia, led to a steady increase in the number of members of the seven Jewish communities in Burgenland. Michael I. Esterházy de Galantha issued the Jews of Zelem with a letter of protection on March 26, 1720, which confirmed their right to settle and their status as protected Jews . Two major fires in 1762 and 1777 hit the community hard. In 1857, 1,244 Jews lived in Deutschkreutz, which corresponded to 37.8% of the total population. This was the high point of the church. Then gradually emigrated to the metropolitan areas of Vienna , Wiener Neustadt and Ödenburg , because Jews were allowed to settle in the cities from 1860 and received emancipation in 1867 as part of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise . The emigration process only slowed down in the 1920s after the area fell to the Republic of Austria .
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In 1834 a new, larger synagogue was built. In addition, the community has its own cemetery and yeshiva , a Torah Talmud school that was run by the rabbi, was held in high regard and attracted a number of young men from neighboring countries. In 1880, however, the community numbered only 476 Jews. Immediately after the annexation of Austria in March 1938, particularly brutal persecution of the Jews began in Burgenland, and by October there were no more Jewish communities. A detention camp was set up in Frauenkirchen where Jews and exponents of the Fatherland Front were imprisoned. 154 members of the community were able to escape in time, 81 were demonstrably murdered in a concentration camp. Many of them are still unknown to this day where they have gone. On Sunday February 16, 1941, the Nazis blew up the synagogue and a 17-year-old observer was fatally hit by a brick thrown into the air. The temple's valuable Torah curtain had previously been confiscated and brought to Vienna. The cemetery was also desecrated.
Today a plaque in the Jewish cemetery commemorates a second Jewish tragedy on Deutschkreutz soil. There is a mass grave of 284 Budapest Jews who died of hunger, exhaustion and illness in 1944 on the grounds of Schloss Deutschkreutz and were then buried.
Erecting and unveiling the monument
The house in which the later composer Karl Goldmark (1830–1915) spent ten years of his childhood and youth is one of the last remaining Jewish houses in Zelem. It is located in the former Judengasse, today's main street. The memorial in memory of the traditional community was placed in front of the building.
The establishment was initiated by the owner of a Viennese event agency, Commercial Councilor Michael Feyer. The memorial was unveiled on July 3, 2012 as part of a solemn ceremony, to which numerous members of the Israelite religious community from Vienna and those interested in contemporary history appeared despite the rain. Before that, the Jewish cemetery was visited, where the local historian Adalbert Putz gave an introduction to the history of the Jewish community.
inscription
THE
JEWISH COMMUNITY
DEUTSCHKREUTZ - ZELEM IN
1938
ALL
JEWISH RESIDENTS WERE DRIVEN
FROM THEIR
HOME,
ONLY A FEW ESCAPED FROM
DESTRUCTION
BY THE
NAZIBARBAREI
Web links
- ORF Burgenland , report on the unveiling of the monument
Individual evidence
- ↑ burgenland.orf.at: Memorial for Jews in Deutschkreutz Published on March 12, 2013 Retrieved on December 16, 2017
- ↑ a b c d e Adalbert Putz: THE STORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ZELEM , on the official website of the Marktgemeinde Deutschkreutz, accessed on December 16, 2017
Coordinates: 47 ° 35 ′ 56.7 " N , 16 ° 37 ′ 32.6" E