Bad Rappenau Jewish community

There is evidence of a Jewish community in Bad Rappenau since the 16th century. The congregation, which was always small, had its largest number of members around 1875 with over 80 people, then quickly declined due to emigration and emigration and died out at the time of National Socialism .

history

Jews have been recorded in Rappenau since the 16th century. A Jud Gumbrecht documented in 1575/76 lived in the so-called Wimpfen fifth of the town, which had been owned by the neighboring imperial city of Wimpfen since 1438 . From 1617 the Jewish customs duty is documented, which from 1670 was leased by the then Rappenau local rulers , the Lords of Gemmingen , to various Rappenau Jews, who were able to collect fees from fellow believers traveling through it. At the same time, the resident Jews from Rappenau were protected Jewsthe local authority. In 1745 there were temporarily no more Jews in Rappenau, as according to the village regulations it was now forbidden to trade with Jews. In 1802 there were again five Jewish families in Rappenau. After the town passed to Baden in 1806, the Jews gradually achieved legal equality with other citizens by 1862.

Jewish cemetery in Bad Rappenau

In 1802 five and in 1824/25 six Jewish families lived there. In 1816 a new synagogue failed due to the lack of resources in the community. It was not until 1843 that the small Bad Rappenau synagogue could be built on a newly developed building site "behind the village" according to plans by the saltworks builder Fritschi. The burial of Rappenauer Jews was originally on the large Jewish cemetery in the near Heinsheim before 1881 on the outskirts of Rappenau on the road to Siegelbach the Jewish cemetery Bad Rappenau has been established.

The upswing of the Jewish community in the middle of the 19th century was due in particular to the spa operations in the Rappenau Saline , which had now started in Rappenau and which also had Jewish bathers for whom u. a. a kosher pub and restaurant on the corner of Siegelsbacher and Babstadter Strasse was licensed. The community had grown to over 80 people by 1875, but it fell sharply in the following period due to emigration and emigration. In 1900 there were 46 Jews living there, in 1933 there were ten. In October 1937 the community was dissolved due to a lack of members, the synagogue was sold to the local milk cooperative and converted into a milk collection point .

National Socialist Persecution

In the night of the pogrom in 1938 , a Jewish shop was demolished, all three houses inhabited by Jews were occupied by local SA men and the residents were mistreated. In 1940 there were still five elderly people of Jewish faith living in Rappenau, all over 70 years of age. As a result of the deportation in the course of the Wagner-Bürckel campaign on October 22, 1940, four of these people died. In 1944 the children of Soviet forced laborers and in 1945 four perished concentration camp prisoners were buried in the Jewish cemetery .

The memorial book of the Federal Archives lists 7 Jewish citizens born in Bad Rappenau who fell victim to the genocide of the National Socialist regime .

Community development

year	Parishioners
1802	5 families
1824	6 families
1825	42 people
1864	50 people
1875	81 people
1900	46 people
1933	10 people

Common names

When all Jews in the Grand Duchy of Baden had to adopt hereditary family names in 1809, the 6 heads of the Rappenau Jews took on the following names: Adler, Bär, Blum, Herbst, Hirsch and Strauss.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Memorial sites for the victims of National Socialism. A documentation . Volume 1. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-89331-208-0 . P. 22
2. ^ Commemorative Book - Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933 - 1945 . Retrieved October 29, 2009.

literature

• Emil Künzel: Jews in Bad Rappenau . In: Bad Rappenauer Heimatbote No. 10, Bad Rappenau 1998
• Wolfram Angerbauer , Hans Georg Frank: Jewish communities in the district and city of Heilbronn. History, fates, documents . District of Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1986 ( series of publications of the district of Heilbronn . Volume 1)