Jewish community of Falkenberg (Wabern)

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A Jewish community existed in Falkenberg , a district of Wabern in the north Hessian Schwalm-Eder district , from the 18th century until the Nazi era . In 1744 there are four Jewish families in Falkenberg. The synagogue was destroyed in 1938 and the last Jewish people from Falkenberg were deported in 1942 and then murdered.

Community development

The number of Jewish residents in Falkenberg peaked in the 19th century. In 1871 it reached almost 20% of the total population of the village, but afterwards it steadily declined due to moving to the cities and aging. The majority of the 27 Jewish people still living in the village in 1933 saw themselves forced to leave Falkenberg due to the increasing reprisals and disenfranchisement; they either went abroad or moved to larger cities. At the beginning of 1939 there were only 11 Jewish residents, and by the beginning of the war there were probably no more Jewish residents in Falkenberg. The Kultusgemeinde ( Kehillah ) therefore had to be dissolved as early as 1938 due to a lack of sufficient members.

year Residents,
total 		Jewish
residents 		Share
in percent
1835 ... 68 ...
1861 458 85 18.6%
1871 436 84 19.3%
1885 385 53 13.8%
1895 445 46 10.3%
1905 430 40 9.3%
1924 515 31 6.1%
1933 523 27 5.2%
1939 523 11 2.1%

Facilities

The Kehillah (community), to which the Jewish residents of Hebel and until 1908 also those of Homberg belonged, had a synagogue , a ritual bath ( mikveh ), a Jewish school and had its own cemetery in the 19th century .

synagogue

It is not known when the Falkenberg synagogue was built, but it is believed that the synagogue, teacher's apartment and mikveh were built around 1730. The synagogue was located on Melsunger Straße near today's kindergarten. It was renovated again in 1929 and last had 26 places for men and 16 for women.

The sharp decline in parishioners in the 1930s, especially after 1933, led to the dissolution of the congregation, and the synagogue was no longer used for church services from spring 1938. Some of their cult objects were handed over to the provincial rabbinate in Kassel in March 1937 and then in May 1938 . However, there they were destroyed during the November pogroms in 1938 . The building of the former Falkenberg synagogue was also destroyed by members of the SA during the November pogroms . Today the property is used as a playground for the kindergarten.

school

A religious school had existed in the village since 1829. The teacher paid by the community was at the same time prayer leader and schochet (butcher). The teacher, who taught from 1840 to around 1865, also ran a matzo bakery ; when a fire broke out there, the former teachers' house was destroyed by flames and the teacher left the village.

The school was recognized as a public Israelite elementary school in 1872, but was only one class and had only a few students. In 1890 11 children attended school; There were 14 school children in 1895, 13 in 1900 and 14 in 1901/02, but only seven in 1908/09. The school was therefore closed in 1909 and the children attended the private Jewish elementary school in Homberg , which was also closed around 1920 due to a lack of students.

Religious instruction was last given to the few school-age Jewish children in Falkenberg (three in 1924, two in 1931/32) by the Jewish teacher in Borken .

graveyard

The cemetery was probably created in the first half of the 18th century. It is located northeast of the village on the south bank of the Baumbach, at position 51 ° 4 ′ 31 ″  N , 9 ° 23 ′ 59 ″  E , about 250 m northeast of the Christian cemetery and can be reached via the continuation of the street An der Lehmgrube. The 65 existing tombstones today come from the established occupation time from 1754 to 1938. In addition to members of the Falkenberg community, Jews from Malsfeld , Wabern and Wolfhagen were also buried here.

Holocaust victims

A total of 24 Jewish people from Falkenberg or who had lived there for a long time were murdered during the Nazi era, the oldest born in 1857, the youngest born in 1932. 12 people from Hebel suffered the same fate, the oldest of them born in 1872, the youngest born in 1919.

Footnotes

  1. ^ In Hebel there were 10 Jewish residents in 1835, 21 in 1861, 24 in 1905 and 17 in 1924 ( Falkenberg: Jüdische Geschichte / Synagoge ).
  2. ↑ In 1908/09 the then eleven families living in Homberg founded their own religious community.
  3. ↑ Seven Torah Pennants .
  4. ↑ Six Torah scrolls with six pennants, six Torah cloaks , an Almemor blanket and a blanket for the prayer desk.
  5. ^ Tombs of the Falkenberg Jewish Cemetery .  Jewish graves in Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  6. ^ Falkenberg: Jewish history

Web links

literature

  • Paul Arnsberg : The Jewish communities in Hesse. Beginning - fall - new beginning. Volume 1. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1971, ISBN 3-7973-0213-4 , pp. 172-173