Former synagogue in Stadthagen

The former synagogue, a place of learning and memorial since 2017

The former Stadthagen synagogue in the district town of the Schaumburg district is located at Niedernstrasse 19. It was converted into a place of remembrance and learning in 2017 after the converted building had served as a warehouse for companies for decades.

history

In the second half of the 17th century the Jewish community in Stadthagen had a famous rabbi : Jobst Samson from Metz, who later called himself Joseph Stadthagen after the place where he worked. In his day there was certainly a prayer room or a synagogue , probably at 15 Krummen Strasse.

Isaak Raphael Saalfeld, a linen manufacturer, was a very active chairman of the Jewish community in the mid-19th century. He reported that around 1775 his grandfather had a synagogue built in a rear building, which has since become too small and unworthy for church services. He therefore negotiated with the city about building a larger synagogue. In 1857 Saalfeld bought house no. 257, today Niedernstrasse 19, and applied to be allowed to build a synagogue in the courtyard.

As early as May 5, 1858, the synagogue was opened with a sermon by Rabbi Dr. Hermann Joel inaugurated. After Saalfeld's death, the property with the buildings became the property of the previously founded synagogue community. Services took place in the synagogue for 80 years. An aerial photo from 1920 illustrates the area around the synagogue: gardens and sheds. Inside the synagogue there was on the ground floor behind a small entrance and stairway the main room with the benches for the men, the Torah shrine in the east wall and in front of it the Bima , the place where the Torah scroll was read. The seats for the women were on a gallery. Further details about the interior are not known. There was probably no mikveh (ritual bath).

Fate of the Jews

Shortly after the transfer of power to the Nazis , anti-Semitic actions began here too :

A boycott of Jewish businesses was called for;
Death threats were issued, for example to the co-owner of the Lion department store, Moritz Trautmann;
Three Jewish youths were attacked by Nazis, one of them had to be hospitalized with serious injuries;
Window panes of shops and apartments were smeared and thrown.

Eventually, Jewish students were expelled from their schools, Jews were banned from working and were forced to sell their businesses to so-called "Aryans". As a result of this terrorism, a number of Jewish families had fled abroad by 1938.

Belated Reichspogromnacht in Stadthagen

On the morning of November 10, 1938, the Stadthagen police received a radio message from the Bielefeld Gestapo : “There will be actions against Jews - especially against synagogues - in the shortest possible time ... It is the arrest of male Jews who are not too old and the are able to carry out ... "

The arrests take place immediately in the morning: 8 people are arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp . Among them was a woman, namely Clara Asch. There are four photos of this arrest, which are probably quite unique, as photography was expressly prohibited.

On the night of November 9-10, synagogues were set on fire all over Germany . In Stadthagen, this action took place two nights later. The police report documents the events. The police officer Bruns reported: “On the night of November 12th, 1938 around 4 o'clock, the wife Strohmeier, Niedernstr. 17, and his wife Buddensiek, Niedernstr. 19, reported that there was a fire in the synagogue. I went straight to the scene of the fire. Here I discovered that a side window of the synagogue in Stohmeier's garden had been smashed. As far as I could see, a large pile of wood was burning in the middle of the synagogue ”. Together with another police officer, he put out the fire and then stated: "Because the fire was discovered early enough, the objects - altar and benches - were only burned." It is not known where the furnishings and religious objects have gone .

As a result of the November pogroms in 1938 and the arrest operation, more Jews from Stadthäger were forced to leave their hometown. While 59 Jews lived in Stadthagen in 1933, at the end of 1939 there were still 28 Jews. Almost all of them were crammed into the Jewish houses at Am Markt 6-8 and Obernstrasse 26. Three of them died of natural causes. One woman, Berta Gellermann, survived the Holocaust in Stadthagen and died here in 1954. Another woman, Irma Rosenfeld, survived the concentration camp and returned shortly to Stadthagen before she emigrated to the USA. All other town hunters of Jewish religious affiliation were deported to various concentration camps from 1941 and murdered there.

Among them were the 81-year-old Bertha Rosenfeld, the 20-year-old Hannah Lilienfeld and the only eight-year-old Liesel Rosenfeld. Clara Asch, who had a small shop for shoes and textiles on Niedernstrasse, was also deported to Auschwitz in 1942 together with her deaf-mute sister Pauline and murdered there. The other Jews killed in the camps were: Frieda Löhnberg, Wilhelm Rosenfeld, Ernst, Johanna Hedwig and Horst Silberbach, Hugo and Ella Seckel, Gertrud Rosenfeld, Adolf and Malchen Goldschmidt, Johanna Essmann, Elias Lion, Ruth Weinberg, Paula Lilienfeld, Flora Philippsohn, Max and Antonie and John Wolf.

→ Main article: List of stumbling blocks in Stadthagen

Fate of the synagogue

In 1942 the property at Niedernstrasse 19 with the synagogue was sold to the businessman Karl Dohme by a representative of the Reich Association of Jews . After the war, Dohme built a new, somewhat flatter roof on the synagogue, added a false ceiling, made the windows smaller and used the building as a warehouse for his paint, wallpaper and carpet business.

In 1952, in redress , a settlement was reached between Dohme and the Jewish Trust Corporation . The successor to the Dohme company, the Böger company, continued to use the former synagogue as a warehouse. This storage room has not been needed for several years. This gave the opportunity to set up a place of remembrance and learning in the former synagogue.

Long side of the renovated synagogue
Gable side of the memorial and learning site
Other long side of the memorial and learning site

Place of remembrance and learning

Duration

Until 2008, the former synagogue at Niedernstrasse 19 was used as a storage room. The building has now been cleared and the ivy growth has been removed. The drainage of rainwater has been temporarily improved. As far as this makes sense, the outside areas have been repaired.

The southern outer facade is clinkered, the other facades are plastered and partly painted over. The original arched windows have clearly been replaced by smaller ones, and some have also been bricked up. The slightly flatter roof, newly built after the Second World War, seems to have no major defects. The false ceiling was drawn in during use as a warehouse.

The building is a historical monument. The door and the wooden stairs to the women's gallery are still original and have been renovated. A storage area next to the synagogue fenced in with corrugated iron has already been relocated in agreement with the owner.

planning

The exterior design of the building clearly shows the historical character of the building's earlier use as a synagogue. The interior of the building is not being reconstructed. However, when designing the interior, a possible use by a possibly future Jewish community in Stadthagen is not disregarded. The false ceiling remains, even if it has been reduced in size for reasons of light incidence and fire protection, so that larger groups can work on the upper floor as a place of learning. The ground floor is designed as an event room and memorial.

The facade of the building is being renovated. The windows are being reconstructed for better exposure, and fire protection must be observed. The floor will be refurbished - tiles will be laid - as will the interior walls. Wall heating is installed. House technology is not available and will be completely reinstalled. The sanitary facilities are made outside the former synagogue.

The completion and inauguration of the learning location took place in autumn 2017.

literature

Herbert Obenaus (ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen. In collaboration with David Bankier and Daniel Fraenkel. 2 volumes, Göttingen 2005.
Jürgen Lingner: The former synagogue and other places of remembrance in Stadthagen