History of the Jews in Krems
There have been Jews in Krems since the 13th century , where one of the most important Jewish communities developed in what is now Lower Austria. When the Jews were expelled from Krems in 1420/21, the medieval Krems Jewish community ceased to exist. In the following centuries, Jews only visited the annual markets in Krems, which are particularly important for the region, as merchants. Only after 1848 were Jews settled again and formed religious communities. At the time of National Socialism , the community was finally destroyed for good .
Beginnings in the Middle Ages
The first Jew to appear in Austria under the Enns is Bibas, who appeared in 1239 and who was probably resident in Krems . It is uncertain whether there was Jewish settlement before then, but at that time Krems was an important trading center in the Babenberg region , which probably also attracted Jewish families. In the same year, Jews were mentioned for the first time in Wiener Neustadt , which, along with Vienna, housed the oldest traditional community in Austria.
On April 29, 1264, the first Jewish judge appeared in Krems in what is now Austria: the Krems dean Irnfried and the Jewish judge Ulrich confirm that the brothers Haunold and Konrad, citizens of Krems, were guilty of the Jew Ismael from Krems. On February 24, 1270, a Jew named Smoiel appears in a Krems list of witnesses and in 1291 can be proven to be a Jew Master (German term for a rabbi or another Jewish functionary within the community). In the early 14th century the Jewish master Israel worked, he left numerous writings and became the founder of a Jewish family of scholars in Austria. Israel's son, Herschel von Herzogenburg, was a well-known moneylender in the second half of the 14th century (Jews were not allowed to pursue any other profession apart from money business) and a prominent Torah scholar . A certain Aharon Blümlein officiated as rabbi, he was a grandson of Israel, but was murdered in the course of the Vienna Gesera in 1420/21. Probably the most famous descendant of Israel was Rabbi Israel Isserlein (died 1460) , who worked in Wiener Neustadt and Marburg . The mention of the Jew Master Smoiel in 1291 suggests that there was a community in the late 13th century.
The medieval parish
A Jewish community represented a community in the township itself and was provided with a certain legal autonomy, comparable to the guilds of the cities, which were also granted certain autonomies and certain tasks. The main tasks of the community consisted of representing the Jews externally, i.e. vis-à-vis the Christian world and tax collection, above all in internal organizational tasks of a religious or secular nature. This included the care for law and order according to halachic laws, the rabbinical court Beth Din mainly dealt with problems relating to marriage and inheritance law or questions of living together. The protection of the honor of the community members, but also the administration of the community property as well as social tasks ( Zedaka ), i.e. the provision of a social safety net that benefited the poor without sufficient tax base, destitute students as well as travelers, were among the tasks of the community. Each congregation member regularly had a certain amount, calculated based on the amount of property, to deliver to the congregation, plus potential income fines and voluntary donations.
The Krems community had a synagogue and a cemetery. In 1878 a gold coin was found at Gaswerkgasse 30 and bone fragments from around 20 skeletons were found, the cemetery is believed to be there. The synagogue was located in the area of the citizens' hospital between Oberer Landstrasse and Judengasse , and this is where most of the Jews settled. The primary occupation remained moneylending. Jews from Krems were among the financiers of the nobility and the monasteries, but most of the income came from loans to ordinary citizens and farmers. There were also close ties to the Jewish community in Vienna , and Krems Jews can often be found in Vienna .
In 1293, after a ritual murder charge , the first persecutions took place here . A plague pogrom occurred in Krems in 1349, when the masses of the entire area attacked the Jews. Because of the quick and energetic intervention of Duke Albrecht II in favor of the Jews, he was given the hardly flattering title of fautor iudeorum , a “beneficiary of the Jews”. The Duke punished those responsible for the violence by looting surrounding villages and imposing heavy fines on the townspeople. From around 1355 there were Jews again in Krems.
A marriage certificate from 1392, the Kremser Ketubba , the numerous well-known rabbis and a functioning community testify to the importance of the community in Krems. It remained one of the most important in Austria until the expulsion in 1420.
Expulsion in the 15th century
The 15th century was marked by a surge in hostility towards Jews on the part of the church as well as on the secular side. Thanks to anti-Jewish sermons by the church , hatred of Jews reached the masses and was often reinforced by poetry or illustrations. Even the patrons no longer saw the need to protect Jews; persecution was usually tolerated or even encouraged. Usually the persecution was accompanied by the targeted expulsion of the Jews and in what is now Austrian territory this affected the Jews in the Duchy of Austria. They fell victim to the Viennese Gesera of 1420/21.
The already heated mood caused by the Hussite Wars and the claims that the Jews had alleged connections to the Hussites became doomed for the Jewish communities. The justification for the persecution was therefore an alleged desecration of the host . This justification was only raised after the expulsion. The very contradicting sources or a Yiddish report do not mention the desecration of the host, but explain the processes of capture, forced baptism and brutal eviction. The expulsion of the Krems Jews took place from mid-June to early August. They were captured first of all. Afterwards some were baptized; those who refused were held captive if they were wealthy, the poorer were driven out. The rest of the rich Jews were tortured and asked to explain where they kept their property. The entire mobile property was confiscated, pledge and debt deeds either burned or confiscated (the latter was probably an important concern for many aristocrats, clergymen and citizens, as they usually could not repay their debts and could evade repayment due to the imprisonment of the Jews) . The rabbi of Krems, Aaron Blümlein, died during the torture. The survivors settled in Hungary and Bohemia.
In the Duchy of Austria the Gesera ended the Jewish settlement for the rest of the Middle Ages. Krems did not have a forced ghetto , but most Jews settled around the synagogue, which was a symbolic and geographical center of the Jewish quarter. After the eviction, the houses and the synagogue were demolished and a church was built on the site.
Modern times
Isolated settlements
The repopulation lasted a long time and was difficult in all of Lower Austria. Although there were only a few privileged court Jews in Lower Austria, there was no longer any permanent settlement. A first influx reached Lower Austria through the expulsion of the Jews in Styria and Carinthia by Maximilian I around 1496/97. The deportation was by no means accompanied by pogroms , but very organized (see → Expulsion of Jews from the Duchy of Styria ). Thus, on imperial orders, the Jews were allowed to resettle in Burgenland, and later also in Lower Austria. No more Jews were accepted in Krems itself. Nevertheless, Jews settled in the surrounding villages and communities, not least because of the main traffic axes for traders along the Danube. Overall, the Jewish population remained very small. Tax registers reveal the marginal settlement. From 1652 to 1671 only 9 Jews lived in Stein . In Lower Austria, Jewish rural communities developed from the 16th century to 1671, which is why this period is also known as the time of the rural Jews . The second expulsion in 1669/71 brought an end to these rural communities.
19th and 20th centuries
At the beginning of the 18th century, foreign Jewish traders boycotted the Krems markets because they felt they were being treated unfairly there. At that time the Jewish settlement consisted of traders who only came to certain annual fairs. The Krems magistrate, who feared for its income, was able to bring about their return to the markets. The modern Jewish community was founded in Krems in the 19th century and reached a maximum number of around 200 members. The community probably consists of newcomers from the surrounding areas.
In place of a presumably existing prayer house in Drinkaveldergasse, the Jews had a new synagogue built in Dinstlstrasse in 1894 - based on a design by the well-known Viennese architect Max Fleischer . The new building was similar in style to a neo-Gothic church, but the street facade was modeled on a Renaissance town hall. The inauguration ceremonies under the direction of the Vienna Chief Rabbi Dr. Moritz Güdemann , the Catholic clergy stayed away because they did not want to be “ unfaithful to their church ”.
After the First World War, the shrinking Jewish community often found it difficult to bring together the ten men ( minyan ) required for a service . The synagogue was only full on high holidays ( Yom Kippur , Rosh Hashanah , ...), as Jews from the Waldviertel came. In 1912, Dr. Meir Gabriel Mehrer from Vienna took on the office of rabbi, which he held until 1938. In the 1930s, the Krems religious community included the judicial districts of Gföhl , Langenlois , Mautern , Pöggstall and Spitz . In 1880/1882, the Krems religious community inaugurated its third cemetery outside the city on Wiener Straße, which replaced a burial area on the Turnerberg that was laid out in the 1850s.
In the interwar period, a period ravaged by poverty and crisis for the population, anti-Semitism rose rapidly in all of Austria, including in Krems. In the 1920s, Krems was a center for Austrian NSDAP members alongside Gmünd . Most of the Jews moved to Vienna, where there were better economic opportunities. In 1934 there were 220 Jews in Krems, in March 1938 there were 116 and in November 65 Jews.
Immediately after the " Anschluss " (March 1938) some Jews from Krems were arrested, but released again shortly afterwards. Jewish-owned shops were smeared, the Jewish prayer house on Dinstlstrasse was stained with swastikas. In mid-September 1938, under SA supervision, Jewish residents had to clear the “ Jewish Temple ”, where they were humiliated and mocked. The synagogue building was then used as a warehouse so that it was not damaged in the November pogroms . Almost all of the 27 existing Jewish businesses had been " Aryanized " by the end of the year . In 1940 the “Israelite Religious Society” sold the cemetery grounds to the city of Krems. Most of the Jews fled in 1938 and 1939, in 1940 there were 16 Jews living in Krems. The rest of the Krems Jews were forced to Vienna, where they were housed in collective apartments in a confined space with other Jews under inhumane circumstances . 130 Jews from Krems were deported and murdered.
At the beginning of April 1945, the synagogue survived a heavy bomb attack almost unscathed. In 1952 it was returned to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde. The municipality's attempt to acquire the building and use it for public purposes failed. In 1978 the former Jewish prayer house in Krems was demolished, although it was still in good condition. In its place there is now a modern bank branch.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Eveline Brugger: From Settlement to Expulsion; in: History of the Jews in Austria . Ueberreuter, Austria, p. 172-173 .
- ↑ a b Klaus-Dieter Alicke: From the history of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area: Krems an der Donau. Klaus-Dieter Alicke, 2014, accessed on May 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Birgit Wiedl: The alleged desecration of the Host in Pulkau 1338 and its reception in Christian and Jewish historiography In: medaon. Magazine for Jewish Life in Research and Education 6 (2010)
- ↑ Austrian National Library : Cod. Hebr. 218 .
- ↑ Krems Ketubbah on The Center for Jewish Art.
- ↑ Barbara Staudinger: The time of the country Jews and the Vienna Jewish city; in: History of the Jews in Austria . S. 236-242 .
- ↑ Ernst Kalt: The Krems Synagogue - a dark chapter in the preservation of monuments. In: DAVID. Jewish culture magazine. DAVID - Jüdischer Kulturverein, July 2014, accessed on May 31, 2020 . (with photos of the synagogue)