Bergheim Jewish Community
The Jewish community of Bergheim in Bergheim in the north Hessian district of Waldeck-Frankenberg existed from the 18th century until after the First World War .
Community development
The community emerged in the first half of the 19th century and was made up of Jewish families from Affoldern , Bergheim, Kleinern , Mehlen and Wellen . Bergheim was chosen as the focus, where the common facilities were also located. It was a very small community (according to current knowledge about ten families). As early as the second half of the century, therefore, there were considerations to dissolve this and assign the families to the Jewish communities in Sachsenhausen , Wildungen or Züschen . However, after a survey in 1876, the families affected decided in favor of Bergheim.
The facilities included a synagogue and a religious school that was located in the synagogue. It is believed that there was also a ritual bath ( mikveh ), but not in the synagogue. The community had its own cemetery.
synagogue
The synagogue was established in the first half of the 19th century in a two-story half-timbered house built around 1730 in today's Kirchstrasse 4. The prayer room and the religion class room were on the upper floor. In addition, two chambers were set up there for residential purposes. There was no mikveh in the synagogue. The Jewish family Joseph last ran a shop on the ground floor. The last church services took place around 1920 due to the ever decreasing number of parishioners.
graveyard
The Jewish cemetery in Bergheim was also laid out in the 19th century for the Jewish residents of the above-mentioned places. The area of the cemetery is 10.06 acres . Today 19 tombstones ( mazewot ) are still preserved. The cemetery should have included at least 24 to 27 graves. The inscriptions that are still legible today date from the period between 1810 and 1930. The last burial took place in 1930. The cemetery is in the street "Am Weinberg".
End of the parish
In 1925 the synagogue building was sold; it has been used for residential purposes ever since. In 1932/33 a Jewish family still lived in Bergheim. In the Holocaust , fourteen Jews who were born or lived in the above communities were murdered.
literature
- Paul Arnsberg: The Jewish communities in Hesse. Beginning - fall - new beginning . 1971. Vol. I pp. 66-67.
- Study Group German Resistance (ed.): Local history guide to sites of resistance and persecution 1933–1945 . Hessen II administrative districts Gießen and Kassel. 1995 pp. 213-214.
- Thea Altaras : The Jewish ritual immersion bath and: Synagogues in Hessen. What has happened since 1945 . Part II. 1994. pp. 63-65.
