Jewish community of Bonfeld

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Stumbling blocks for the Hertz family murdered by the National Socialists in the center of Bonfeld

A Jewish community in Bonfeld (today a district of Bad Rappenau ) existed again from 1717 after the mention of individual Jews in the 16th century and grew rapidly after 1766 with the permission of the sons of Jews to settle. A synagogue was built in 1780, and in 1803 there was a first Jewish order in Bonfeld. The community had its largest number of members around 1850 with over 130 people, afterwards it fell sharply due to emigration and emigration and went out at the time of National Socialism , when over 20 Jews from Bonfeld were killed.

history

Gravestones in the Jewish cemeteries near Heinsheim and Waibstadt still bear witness to the Jewish inhabitants of Bonfeld

Jews living in Bonfeld, a town under the imperial knighthood, which has belonged to the Lords of Gemmingen since the late 15th century, are already mentioned in the Wimpfener Judenordnung of 1598 , but there is no evidence of a Jewish community from the 17th century. It was not until 1717 that two Jews residing in Bonfeld were named again: Susskind and Jodel . In 1765/66 there were six Jewish families there. When the sons of Jews were allowed to settle in Bonfeld, the size of the community increased rapidly. In 1777/78 there were ten Jewish families who built a small synagogue in 1780 . The Bonfeld Jews were buried in the large Jewish cemetery near Heinsheim or in the Jewish cemetery near Waibstadt .

In 1803 there were already 15 Jewish families whose “disorder” gave the local authorities the reason to issue the first Bonfeld Jewish Regulations on March 4, 1803. In the future, a separate mayor was set up for the Jewish community from among their ranks, the Judenschultheiß .

The Bonfeld Jews, like most of the population, lived in poor conditions. Only about half of the families ran a business. The Bonfeld landlord Carl von Gemmingen demanded in 1820 that Jews settling in Bonfeld should purchase goods for at least 600 guilders in order to provide evidence of a minimum wealth of 500 guilders. Around 1830 the Israelite religious community became a branch of the Jewish community in Massenbachhausen , but later became independent. Around 1850 the community had reached its greatest expansion with around 130 people, but it declined in the following period due to emigration and emigration. The reasons for the strong emigration and emigration are to be found in the poverty of the rural community as well as in the equality laws, which granted Jews full civil rights with freedom of movement. In 1886 there were 53 Jews in Bonfeld, in 1900 there were still 44. In the early 20th century, the financial situation of Bonfeld's Jews had consolidated and the size of the community remained almost constant.

The entrepreneur Albert Ottenheimer, who was born in Bonfeld, set up a foundation in the amount of 10,000 Reichsmarks in 1929, the interest income of which was largely to be paid out to needy Jews. The Albert Ottenheimer Foundation survived the Second World War and made further payments in 1946, but its track is lost with the currency changeover in 1948.

National Socialist Persecution

In 1933 there were 40 Jews living in Bonfeld. During the pogrom night in November 1938, Jewish shops were damaged, the synagogue was demolished and Jews from Bonfeld were mistreated. Hugo Heinrich Hertz, who moved to Bonfeld in 1936, died in 1940 as a result of the abuse. Other Jews from Bonfeld were imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp for several weeks in 1938 . About half of the Jews in Bonfeld managed to emigrate to rescue, the remaining 20 people perished during the deportation of German Jews in 1941/42.

The memorial book of the Federal Archives lists 22 Jewish residents of Bonfeld who fell victim to the genocide of the National Socialist regime .

Of the buildings belonging to the Jewish community in Bonfeld, only the slaughterhouse at 13 Herbststrasse has survived. The synagogue was sold and demolished shortly after it was damaged on the night of the pogrom. In 1988 the Evangelical Church Community of Bonfeld tried to erect a memorial stone at the former location of the synagogue, but this did not materialize. The memorial plaque designed at that time is now in the foyer of the town hall in Bad Rappenau. As the first monument on site in Bonfeld, four stumbling blocks for the members of the Hertz family were laid at the beginning of Kirchhausener Strasse in 2018 .

Common names

The following hereditary family names were adopted by the heads of the Bonfeld Jews in 1825: Bamberger, Blumenthaler, Ottenheimer, Rosenthaler and Strasburger.

Personalities

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Commemorative Book - Victims of Persecution of the Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933–1945 . Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  2. ^ Julius Fekete : Art and cultural monuments in the city and district of Heilbronn . 2nd Edition. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1662-2 , p. 93.
  3. ^ Rudolf Petzold, Werner Schneider: "The Bonfelder Judenschaft." In: City of Bad Rappenau (ed.): Bonfeld. Local history contributions from the past and present of a former imperial knighthood village. Editors: Rudolf Petzold, Anne and Helmut Schüßler. Bad Rappenau 2000, p. 454.
  4. ^ Rudolf Petzold, Werner Schneider: "The Bonfelder Judenschaft." In: City of Bad Rappenau (ed.): Bonfeld. Local history contributions from the past and present of a former imperial knighthood village. Editors: Rudolf Petzold, Anne and Helmut Schüßler. Bad Rappenau 2000, p. 455.
  5. ↑ Lisa Könnecke: "Four brass stones against forgetting." In: Kraichgau Voice , edition of July 5, 2018, p. 28.

literature

  • 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)
  • Rudolf Eberle: The secret of salvation is memory. Documentation of the Evangelical Church Community Bonfeld. November 1988.
  • Rudolf Petzold, Werner Schneider: "The Bonfeld Jews." In: City of Bad Rappenau (ed.): Bonfeld. Local history contributions from the past and present of a former imperial knighthood village. Editors: Rudolf Petzold, Anne and Helmut Schüßler. Bad Rappenau 2000, pp. 446-460.

Web links

Commons : Judaism in Bonfeld  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files