Fellheim Jewish Community
The Jewish community Fellheim was a rural Jewish community in the Upper Swabian Fellheim in what is now the Unterallgäu district in Bavaria , which existed from 1670 to 1942 . Other larger Jewish communities in the vicinity existed in Altenstadt (Iller) , Bad Buchau , Ichenhausen , Laupheim and Memmingen . It was in the shape of a street village with a synagogue at the southern entrance to the town on Memminger Straße. In 1833, 80 Jewish families lived in Fellheim and made up 70% of the local population. This resulted in two different types of settlements , in the south the Jewish part of Fellheim, also called "Judenhausen" from 1670, and in the northern part the actual rural village with the familiar local appearance.
history
Beginning in the 17th century
There was not a single settlement of Jews in the Wittelsbacher territories , from which today's state of Bavaria is derived. Only in the area of the later administrative district of Swabia , in the former small ecclesiastical and secular territories, which often suffered from a lack of money, did families of Jewish faith settle under the legal structure of the Jewish shelf . The Jews were not allowed to join a guild. Their professional activities were limited to the profession of peddler and the fur, cattle, salt and grain trade. The money industry was added later with restrictions.
After the Thirty Years' War , Baron Phillip Bernhard von Reichlin-Meldegg permitted the immigration of initially five Jewish families to Fellheim in 1670. In 1716, Marx Nissont was employed by the community as a rabbi . He was a cantor , religion and elementary teacher, community clerk and slaughterer . In 1786 a synagogue was built on what is now the site at 17 Memminger Strasse . A Jewish cemetery was added later. Before that there was a prayer room for the Jewish families. In 1794 a mikveh , a building for the community's ritual immersion bath, and the first school were mentioned. After a Christian teacher also taught at the school from 1812, but was transferred to Lindau due to the preference for Jews , the Jewish community hired its own teacher in 1814 for a salary of 300 guilders. As early as 1829 a total of 79 weekday students and 64 Sunday students were recorded. This number rose to 86 weekday students by 1833, while Sunday students stagnated at 63 students. After the old premises became unbearable and too small, a new building was built in Memminger Straße 44 in 1836. In 1860 there were only 48 weekday students and 33 Sunday students. This number had dropped to three weekday students and two Sunday students by 1900. In 1910 the school was closed and the remaining Jewish students were sent to the Christian elementary school. A Jewish religious teacher from nearby Memmingen took over the Jewish religious instruction. The school house was acquired by the Christian community in 1911 for 6,000 marks and used as a school house. Today it is the town hall of Fellheim.
There was also a ritual butcher's shop at Memminger Strasse 16. The houses of the Jewish families were in the south-western part of the village. The houses are still recognizable by their general appearance, a small area and the dense, often connected buildings.
Until 1806 Fellheim belonged to the noble house of the imperial barons of Reichlin-Meldegg. In 1833 the maximum number of Jewish residents was reached with around 500 people. Thus 70% of the local population of Fellheim was of the Jewish denomination. The Jewish community belonged to the Augsburg district rabbinate . A Jewish school , which was closed in 1910, was given to the community in 1836. After that, the Jewish community members emigrated to the surrounding cities because of better living conditions. The Rosenthal family left Fellheim and founded the Rosenthal second-hand bookshop in Munich in a city palace built between 1909 and 1911 at Brienner Straße 47 . In 1910 there were still 22 Jewish residents, fifteen years later there were still 20. After 1933, 12 Jewish residents were able to emigrate, but only in the years 1938 to 1941. The last 14 community members were deported in 1942 .
Pogrom of November 10, 1938
During the pogrom on November 10, 1938, around forty men came to Fellheim in three trucks from neighboring Boos . They broke into the synagogue and smashed part of the interior. They then stole the items for rite and cult, ten old Torah scrolls and a Torah cloak from the 18th century and burned them on the way back to Boos. SS people from nearby Memmingen also came to Fellheim to support the planned action . The SS people destroyed the rest of the inventory and badly damaged the Torah shrine . Some villagers participated in the devastation. The majority of Fellheim's residents resisted the destruction of the synagogue. During the war, the vacant building was used by the military and was used to house aircraft engines.
The end of the Jewish community
The following people were deported to Piaski in Poland in March and July 1942 :
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There their trail is lost. There is a last letter from Berta and Isaak Einstein to their children:
"Fellheim, July 27, 1942
My dear good children all!
The last greeting from our homeland, whether it reaches you dear children and grandchildren must be left to God. Since Tischa beAv we have known that we will get away and that we will be collected with twelve older people from Memmingen and Augsburg . We don't know anything specific about the destination yet, they say about Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic, where there are already friends from Munich, we are not allowed to write, I think.
Dear Uncle Adolf got away from Heggbach in spite of his ailments , he had letters written to Stuttgart. Tell us where he's going, but so far we haven't been able to find out anything, so GW (God willing) also to Theresienstadt. My good children and grandchildren, that only you have left is our consolation. Only that you, dear Marta, were not allowed to be with your dear husband, is from God, hope that he directs it for the better. I was in constant correspondence with his parents. We are both healthy GL (Praise God) and in God's name we share the lot of thousands. Dear daughters, your dear sisters have sent parcels to Piaski (assembly camp in Poland) as long as it was possible, God willing, will you see you again? My thoughts accompany you every hour. Farewell, good children and grandchildren. May the Almighty give you happiness and blessings. Greet and kiss you deeply.
Your mother
My dear and good children and grandchildren!
The dear mother has already written everything else, it just has to be and nothing can be changed. Otherwise, thank God we are well and healthy, I hope the same from you, my friends. It greets you and kisses you, your loving father Isaac. "
The Einstein's children survived the Holocaust and received the letter after the war.
After 1945
After 1945 the building was confiscated by the advancing US Army and transferred to the JRSO ( Jewish Restitution Successor Organization ). In 1951 it was sold to private individuals who renovated it in 1954 and converted it into a residential building. In August 1948, eight people were charged with participating in the pogrom at the Memmingen Regional Court . Two were acquitted and six received prison terms ranging from 4 to 15 months. In 2007 the Fellheim community bought the building of the former synagogue and the space between the synagogue and the cemetery. In the coming years it is planned to repair the former synagogue at a cost of 1.7 million euros. The Bavarian state is contributing 1.3 million euros to the project.
Jewish war veterans
- Ludwig Heilbronner from Fellheim, private in the 12th Bavarian Infantry Regiment , was decorated with the Iron Cross because of his excellent behavior in the battle of Sedan .
- On August 5, 1926, Albert Einstein, the oldest Jewish veteran in Swabia , corporal leader, antique dealer and war participant in the campaigns of 1866 and 70/71 and longstanding chairman of the Fellheim community, died. Railway board member Ostermann pointed out in his mourning address that the corporal leader Einstein belied the assertion that the honor and bravery of soldiers depend on the denomination.
Rabbi von Fellheim
- Max Nissont (1716–?)
- Jacob Bear
- Simon Leopold Laupheimer
- Joel Nathan Greilsheimer (1778–1800)
- Marx Hayum Seligsberg (1830–1877)
Other people
- Joseph Rosenthal (1805–1885), bookseller
- Ludwig Rosenthal (1840–1928), bookseller
- Jacques Rosenthal (1854–1937), bookseller
See also
literature
- Fellheim an der Iller. An illustrated tour through the former Jewish town center Fellheim , ed. History, Customs and Chronicle Working Group in cooperation with the Office for Rural Development and the Fellheim Municipality (2007)
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments Bavaria III. Swabia. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1989 (update planned for 2006–2008)
- The Rosenthals. The rise of a Jewish family of antiquaries to world fame. With contributions by Elisabeth Angermaier, Jens Koch, Anton Löffelmeier, Eva Ohlen and Ingo Schwab, Böhlau Verlag Vienna - Cologne - Weimar
- Bernard M. Rosenthal: Cartel, Clan, or Dynastiy? The Olschkis and the Rosenthals 1859-1976 , Harvard Library Bulletin, Volume XXV, Number 4, October 1977
Web links
- History of the synagogue in the Alemannia-Judaica
- Förderkreis Synagoge Fellheim eV on the side of the administrative association Boos
Individual evidence
- ^ Tilmann Breuer, Heinrich Kreisel and Adam Horn (eds.): City and district of Memmingen. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1959, p. 106.
- ^ History of the village of Fellheim an der Iller / district of Memmingen , Wilhelm Rapp, 1960, Verlag Gemeinde Fellheim, pages 140-142
- ↑ Fellheim an der Iller. An illustrated tour through the former Jewish town center Fellheim , ed. Working Group on History, Customs and Chronicles in cooperation with the Office for Rural Development and the Municipality of Fellheim (2007) p. 14
- ↑ Memminger Zeitung: Support group for synagogue planned ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 31, 2010
