Durmenach Jewish Community
The Jewish community in Durmenach , a French commune in the Haut-Rhin department in the Alsace region , came into being at the end of the 17th century.
history
In 1766 there were 43 Jewish families and in 1784 73 Jewish families with a total of 340 people lived in Durmenach. In the middle of the 19th century there were at times more Jewish than Christian residents. The maximum number of Jewish residents was reached around 1840 with 640 people, which corresponded to 75% of the total population.
Most of the Jewish families lived from trading cattle, horses and goods of all kinds. The Jewish cattle dealers were also active as money lenders.
The Jewish community had a school, a ritual bath and a cemetery. A teacher was employed who was both a prayer leader and a schochet . From 1802 to 1910 Durmenach was the seat of a rabbinate .
Pogroms
There were several anti-Jewish pogroms in Durmenach, such as in 1789 (see French Revolution ) and on February 29, 1848 (see February Revolution 1848 ), when 75 Jewish houses were set on fire. The pogroms in Alsace accelerated the migration from the countryside to the urban centers. The number of Jewish residents in Durmenach has fallen sharply since the middle of the 19th century.
Community development
| year | Parishioners | |
|---|---|---|
| around 1840 | 640 | |
| 1861 | 204 | |
| 1871 | 373 | |
| 1910 | 137 | |
| 1931 | 100 | |
| 1939 | 61 |
National Socialist Persecution
After the German occupation of Alsace, the Jews in Durmenach were deported to southern France between July and October 1940 and later murdered in the Eastern European concentration camps .
After 1945
After 1945 some of the survivors returned to Durmenach. In 1965, 15 Jewish people lived in Durmenach, but they were unable to maintain the synagogue.
synagogue
The synagogue was built in 1803. In 1959 it was sold to the Catholic parish and converted into a parish hall. On January 14, 1983, the building was destroyed by fire and then rebuilt.
literature
- Klaus-Dieter Alicke: Lexicon of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area. Volume 1: Aach - Groß-Bieberau. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-08077-2 , Sp. 90-91 ( online edition ).