History of the Jews in Hanover

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The history of the Jews in Hanover began in the 13th century. In 2009 there were about 6,200 members of the four Jewish communities in Hanover .

New synagogue in Hanover around 1885

Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

Jews lived in Hanover as early as the 14th century . They represented a minority within the city and kept to their traditional, ritually prescribed ways of life (such as the Sabbath law and observance of food laws ). As protective Jews, they had a special legal status, required express authorization from the authorities and did not have the rights of other residents.

After the anti-Jewish sermons of Protestant clergy led to violent riots, the city council of Hanover banned trade between Christians and Jews in 1588. Since the Jews were deprived of their livelihood, they left the Hanover old town and moved to the then still independent Calenberger Neustadt . Until the 19th century there were no more Jews living in Hanover's old town.

Also in the Calenberger Neustadt , where the Jews built the New Synagogue (destroyed in the Reichspogromnacht of 1938) in the 19th century , they were suppressed after their escape from the old town. As early as 1593 their “temple” was “destroyed and abolished” by order of Duke Heinrich Julius . The Jews themselves were expelled from Neustadt, their property was "graciously assigned to the church" by the duke. In 1608 they were allowed to return and in 1609 they completed their new place of prayer. But church dignitaries of the Calenberger Land were outraged that the Jews had rebuilt a synagogue "on the Neustadt in front of Hanover". The Ronnenberg evangelical superintendent Wichmann Schulrabe , to whose district the Neustadt before Hanover belonged, finally complained in writing to the consistory in Wolfenbüttel on February 1, 1613 . The result was that in the same year the Grand Bailiff zu Calenberg also had this second Jewish church in Calenberger Neustad t demolished on princely orders . That is why the Jews of Calenberger Neustadt no longer had a place to hold church services. In 1688 they were allowed to build a small synagogue in the house of their headmaster Levin Goldschmidt . In 1703 the court and chamber agent of the Hanoverian Guelph Dukes, Leffmann Behrens , succeeded in building a new synagogue on the spot where the synagogue, which was torn down in 1613, had been. The independent Jewish culture was maintained in this seclusion - on a place in a backyard that was not visible to the public.

The first printed address book of the city of Hanover from 1798 listed individual Jews at the end of the book in a directory of trade and commerce in the Calenberger Neustadt.

19th and early 20th centuries

Around 1800: Synagogue as number 28 in John Stockdale's city map with Hanover, Calenberger Neustadt, Linden and the Great Garden

For a short time until 1814 the - male - Jews obtained the same civil rights as all other men since the French ruled Kingdom of Westphalia .

Although mainly active in commercial and financial professions, the Jewish minority existed on the fringes of society until the middle of the 19th century. Their number gradually increased to about 500 people by the beginning of the 19th century.

In the Kingdom of Hanover , the right of exception was abolished in 1842 and the Jews were legally equated with other citizens. In the middle of the 19th century, Israel Simon was the first banker in Hanover.

When the Jewish population in Hanover grew in the course of the 19th century, the Old Synagogue became too small. From 1864 to 1870, the New Synagogue was built after the demolition of older buildings in Bergstrasse (today Red Row) in Calenberger Neustadt . It was located in the vicinity of the main churches in Hanover. The building, designed by Edwin Oppler in the style of historicism , was a symbol of the self-confidence and recognition of the Jews and had a stylistic effect on the construction of synagogues in the German Empire .

In 1893 Alexander Moritz Simon founded the Israelitische Erziehungsanstalt in Ahlem , which was renamed the Israelitische Gartenbauschule Ahlem in 1919 .

At the beginning of the 20th century, around 5000 Jews lived in Hanover. The years up to the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933 brought a social rise for Judaism in bourgeois society. But secular Jews such as the KPD politicians Werner Scholem and Iwan Katz were also involved in the Hanoverian labor movement . At the same time, a new anti-Semitism developed in the form of anti-liberal and anti-democratic movements, which became state doctrine with the takeover of power in 1933. As a result of new persecutions, the number of Hanoverian Jews fell to around 4,800 in 1936.

time of the nationalsocialism

From 1933 the Jews were given exceptional rights. Under city planning officer Karl Elkart there were Aryanizations , expulsion and persecution, whereby the Jewish community of Hanover was destroyed. Of the approximately 4,800 Jews that Hanover counted in 1938, many quickly decided to emigrate .

Poland action and November pogroms

On October 28, 1938, 484 Jews of Polish nationality were herded together in Hanover as part of the Poland Action , collected in the “Rusthaus” hall (Burgstrasse 30) and deported from the main train station across the Polish border.

The Grünspan family from Burgstrasse 36 was among the deportees. The second oldest son of the family, Herschel Grünspan , was in Paris at the time. When he found out that his family had been expelled, he bought a revolver on November 7, 1938, drove to the German embassy in Paris and shot five times at Legation Councilor Ernst Eduard vom Rath , who happened to be there , and who died on November 9. This was hyped up by the National Socialists as an "attack on world Jewry " and used as a pretext for the long-planned November pogroms in 1938 , which were staged as "spontaneous acts of popular anger". The following night synagogues were set on fire throughout the German Reich, including the New Synagogue in Hanover on Bergstrasse. It burned out in the process, later it was blown up and removed. 94 Jewish shops and 27 apartments were destroyed in Hanover, 334 Jews from Hanover and the surrounding area were arrested and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp.

On June 25, 1939, another smaller group of Jews was deported.

Jewish houses

At the beginning of the Second World War , around 2000 Jews were still living in Hanover. On September 3 and 4, 1941, the “ Aktion Lauterbacher ” led to a ghettoization of the Jewish families. Around 1200 Jews had to leave their houses and apartments and were crammed into 15 so-called " Jewish houses " under catastrophic living conditions :

  • Old Synagogue, Bergstrasse 8, street no longer exists, near Rote Reihe, Calenberger Neustadt
  • School building Lützowstrasse 3, center
  • Administration building Ohestraße 8/9, today the location of the vocational school center, Calenberger Neustadt
  • Jewish Hospital and Retirement Home, Ellernstrasse 16, Zooviertel
  • Retirement home Auf dem Emmerberge 31, Südstadt
  • Heinemanhof (old people's home for Jewish women of the Minna James Heineman Foundation), Kirchrode
  • Sermon hall of the new Jewish cemetery , Nordstadt
  • Ahlem Israelite Horticultural School
  • Residential house at Dieterichsstrasse 28, Warmbüchenviertel
  • Residential building at Herschelstrasse 31, Mitte
  • House at Josephstrasse 22, today Otto-Brenner-Strasse, Mitte
  • Residential building Kniehauerstraße 61, old town
  • Residential house at Körnerstrasse 24, Mitte
  • Residential house at Scholvinstrasse 12, Mitte
  • Residential building Wunstorfer Strasse 16 a, Limmer

Deportations

Memorial at the Fischerhof train station

The expulsion from the apartments prepared for the deportation of Jews from Germany , which began a short time later . At the end of 1941 and before the Wannsee Conference in February 1942, many Jews living in Hanover were taken to the intended assembly camp, the Ahlem Israelite Horticultural School . From there, 1001 people were transported to the Fischerhof train station in Linden on December 15, 1941 and, after luggage checks and body searches, were deported to the Riga ghetto . Six other transports up to 1944 took place from this station to the concentration camps and ghettos in Auschwitz , Theresienstadt and Warsaw . An eighth transport from Hanover took place in 1945 from another train station.

A total of around 2,400 people from the city and southern Lower Saxony were deported from Hanover , only a few of whom survived the Shoah . From the first transport in 1941 with 1001 people it is known that 68 survived the Second World War.

On the 70th anniversary of the first deportation, the city of Hanover commemorated the event on December 15, 2011 with commemorative events with the participation of five survivors. This also included a light action on Trammplatz . Schoolchildren lit a candle for each of the 1001 deported people, which then formed a Star of David . The program also included an exhibition in the New Town Hall and a symposium .

concentration camp

Concentration camp prisoners in front of Barrack 2 in the Hanover-Ahlem concentration camp after liberation by the US Army

In today's city of Hanover were 1943 and 1944 to the end of World War II concentration camp seven satellite camps established that the Neuengamme concentration camp were assigned. The satellite camps were affiliated with industrial companies in which the concentration camp prisoners - including many Jewish people - were used as workers:

The history of these camps, the fate of the prisoners and the process of coming to terms with them in the post-war period were comprehensively documented in the mid-1980s.

post war period

When American troops occupied Hanover on April 10, 1945, there were only around 100 Jews in the city.

After the Second World War, the Jews who returned from the concentration camps received first aid from other citizens with money and additional ration cards . Many of the former Jewish prisoners needed medical help, assistance and advice. On August 10, 1945, the British military government issued a permit to establish a Jewish community.

In 1945, Norbert Prager was elected first chairman of the Jewish community in Hanover, while a second community, which emerged from the Jewish Committee , initially rejected his ideas. With the help of Jewish organizations and the state government of Lower Saxony, social support for the members could be guaranteed. New Jewish life slowly emerged in the city as a result of immigration.

present

Memorials

The memorial for the murdered Jews of Hanover on Opernplatz has been a reminder of the persecution of Jews in Hanover since 1994 . The memory of Jewish citizens are also moved into the pavement stumbling blocks (see list of the stumbling blocks in Hanover ) to their former residences. By 2015 330 stones had been laid in the city. A central memorial for the Hanover region was set up at the former location of the Hanover-Ahlem satellite camp in Ahlem .

Commemoration

Communities

There are four Jewish communities with a total of around 6200 members in Hanover.

Jewish community

The Jewish Community of Hanover K. d. Publicly has about 5000 members. Michael Fürst is the chairman.

In 1953, a Jewish retirement home was inaugurated at Haeckelstrasse 6 in the Bult district . In the course of the following years, more Jews residing in Hanover were accepted as community members. From 1957 regular religious instruction for the Jewish children took place again. The next steps were the construction of a new Jewish community center at Haeckelstrasse 10 with a high-rise apartment building, hall for cultural purposes, classrooms, community office and club rooms. In 1963 the new synagogue was built on Haeckelstrasse, which was inaugurated on November 10, 1963. After 1990 community life was expanded considerably, especially in the areas of youth, cultural, social and senior work. The membership of the Hanover Jewish Community increased from 900 to around 5000 in 2009.

Liberal Jewish Community

The Liberal Jewish Community of Hanover KdÖ.R. has around 700 members. Ingrid Wettberg is the chairman .

In September 1995, after internal conflicts, 79 members broke away from the Jewish Community and founded a New Jewish Community in Hanover . In 1997 she was a founding member of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and soon thereafter renamed herself the Liberal Jewish Community of Hanover . In January 2009 she opened her synagogue "Etz Chaim" in Leinhausen . The building was previously the Protestant Gustav Adolf Church (church construction: 1965–71, Fritz Eggeling, renovation: 2007–09, Prof. Gesche Grabenhorst and Roger Ahrens), which was converted into a Jewish community center. The community center is also the office of the regional association of the Israelite religious communities of Lower Saxony Kdö.R.

Jewish-Sephardic-Bukhari community

In September 2009 a community of Bukharian Jews opened their synagogue in Ricklingen . It has about 200 members, chaired by M. Davydow.

Chabad Lubavitch

The Hasidic - Orthodox movement Chabad Lubavitch maintains its own education center in Kleefeld . It has around 400 members.

  • Synagogue of the Jewish community in Hanover on Haeckelstrasse in the Bult district

  • Synagogue of the Liberal Jewish Community of Hanover in Leinhausen

  • Jewish-Sephardic-Bucharian community in Ricklingen

  • Education center of Chabad Lubavitch in Kleefeld

graveyards

  • Oberstrasse cemetery

  • Strangriede cemetery

  • Jewish cemetery in Bothfeld

  • Mourning hall at the Jewish cemetery in Bothfeld

Personalities

See also

literature

General

Special topics

  • TM: Searching for clues. What happened to the Jewish population of Hanover after the seizure of power in 1933? In: Stadtkind hannovermagazin. Issue 9/2013, September 2013, pp. 44–47.
  • Julia Berlit-Jackstien, Karljosef Kreter (Ed.): Deported into death. The deportation of 1001 Hanoverians on December 15, 1941 to Riga. Exhibition catalog for the exhibition of the same name from December 15, 2011 to January 27, 2012 in the New Town Hall . (Series of writings on the culture of remembrance in Hanover, vol. 1). Hanover 2011, ISBN 978-3-7752-6200-2 .
  • Marlis Buchholz: Die hannoverschen Judenhäuser: On the situation of the Jews in the time of the ghettoization and persecution 1941 to 1945. Hildesheim 1987, ISBN 3-7848-3501-5 .
  • Marlis Buchholz: The auction of the property of deported Jews 1941/42. In: Lower Saxony Yearbook for State History . Vol. 73, Hannover 2001, ISSN  0078-0561 , pp. 409-418.
  • The question of the mission to the Jews. In: Dirk Riesener : People's Mission - Between People's Church and Republic. 75 years house of church services - formerly the office for community service - of the Evangelical Lutheran regional church of Hanover. Lutherisches Verlagshaus , Hannover 2012, ISBN 978-3-7859-1080-1 , pp. 494–499.
  • Peter Hertel: The Jews of Ronnenberg. Part 1: 1700-1933, Ed .: City of Ronnenberg, writings on urban development, Vol. 4, Ronnenberg 2012.
  • Peter Hertel and Christiane Buddenberg-Hertel: Church and Synagogue , in: The Jews of Ronnenberg - A city confesses to its past, publisher: Region Hannover (Ahlem memorial). Hannover 2016, ISBN 978-3-7752-4903-4 , pp. 22-24.
  • State capital Hanover, press office, Jewish community Hanover (ed.): Life and fate. For the inauguration of the synagogue in Hanover. Hanover 1963, DNB 452735483 .
  • Network of Remembrance and Future in the Hanover Region (Ed.): Places of Remembrance: Signposts to sites of persecution and resistance during the Nazi regime in the Hanover region. Hanover 2007, DNB 986937738 .
  • Hans Otte : Never forget! Hanover's destroyed synagogue and its memorial in the Red Row. Changed new edition Information and press office of the Evangelical Lutheran. Regional Church of Hanover, Hanover 2003, OCLC 249351171 .
  • Anke Quast: After the liberation. Jewish communities in Lower Saxony since 1945 - the example of Hanover (= publications of the Working Group on the History of Lower Saxony (after 1945). Vol. 17). Wallstein, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 978-3-89244-447-3 (preview) .
  • Rotraut Ries: Jewish life in Lower Saxony in the 15th and 16th centuries (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 35; Sources and studies on the general history of Lower Saxony in modern times. Volume 13). Edited by the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen . Hahn, Hanover 1994, ISBN 3-7752-5894-9 , also dissertation , University of Münster.
  • Peter Schulze: Deportations of Jews. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 124.
  • M. [eir] Wiener: Liepmann Cohen and his sons, Chamber Agents in Hanover, in: Monthly for the History and Science of Judaism, Ed .: Oberrabbiner Z. [Acharias] Frankel, Volume 13, Issue 5, Breslau 1864, p. 161 -184.

Web links

Commons : History of the Jews in Hanover  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Street names, but especially house numbers, were partially changed after the air raids on Hanover and the reconstruction

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Schulze in: Stadtlexikon Hannover, p. 326ff.
  2. ↑ Peter Schulze in: Stadtlexikon Hannover, p. 326.
  3. ^ A b Peter Hertel : The Jews of Ronnenberg. Part 1: 1700-1933, Ed .: City of Ronnenberg, writings on urban development, Vol. 4, Ronnenberg 2012, p. 19 f.
  4. ↑ a b c d e M. [eir] Wiener: Liepmann Cohen and his sons, Chamber Agents in Hanover, in: Monthly for the History and Science of Judaism, Ed .: Oberrabbiner Z. [Acharias] Frankel, Volume 13, Issue 5, Breslau 1864, p. 171
  5. ↑ a b Peter Hertel and Christiane Buddenberg-Hertel: Church and Synagogue , in: The Jews of Ronnenberg - A city confesses to its past, publisher: Region Hannover (Ahlem memorial). Hannover 2016, ISBN 978-3-7752-4903-4 , p. 22
  6. ^ Klaus Mlynek in: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 12.
  7. ↑ see in the networked Wikipedia section; however, no reference is given there.
  8. ^ Photo of the burned out synagogue ( memento from January 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Photo of the blown synagogue ( memento from January 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ Report from the police chief to the government president (PDF, 20 kB)
  11. ↑ Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (ed.): Stadtlexikon Hannover: From the beginnings to the present , Schlütersche, Hannover, 2009, p. 17, action Lauterbacher
  12. ↑ Information board : Fischerhof station
  13. ↑ Hanover commemorates the Jews deported to Riga In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of December 14, 2011
  14. ↑ Rainer Fröbe u. a .: Concentration camp in Hanover - concentration camp work and armaments industry in the late phase of World War II. (Publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen 35; Sources and studies on the general history of Lower Saxony in modern times; Vol. 8, 2 parts). Verlag August Lax, Hildesheim 1985, ISBN 3-7848-2422-6 .
  15. ↑ Waldemar R. Röhrbein : PRAGUE, Norbert. In: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 289 f.
  16. ↑ Cf. Knufinke, Ulrich: " Mighty proud of my community ". Interview: From church to synagogue, in: ModerneREGIONAL 2015,1
  17. ↑ Peter Schulze : Meyer, (9) Louis Ephraim. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , p. 253; online through google books