Gérardmer Jewish Community
A Jewish community in Gerardmer in the Vosges department in the French region of Lorraine had existed since the 1840s, developed as the site of a village to the small town.
history
The first Jewish residents came from Alsace to trade in Gérardmer and the surrounding area. Around 1850 there were around 20 Jewish residents and their number rose continuously in the period that followed. The result was a Jewish community that rented a room as a prayer room and hired Isaac Bloch (* 1833 in Rosheim ; † 1893 in Gérardmer) as ministre-officiant in 1864 . This prayer room was bought in 1890 by Alfred Paris, a textile manufacturer and member of the community, and made available to the Jewish community. The service was held there until the German occupation in 1940 during the Second World War . As early as the early 1930s it was difficult to achieve the necessary number of men of religious age ( minyan ). The few Jewish residents of the place were integrated and also involved in political life. The dealer Léon Weil was a local councilor from 1919 to 1935 and Fernand Bloch, cheese wholesaler, was deputy chairman of the retail association in the 1930s.
As in other parts of the Vosges , the Jews of Gérardmer lived mainly from the cattle trade, as butchers or from trading in cheese and textiles. So the Weil family owned a big business across from the church. Nathan Lévy built a weaving mill at the beginning of the 20th century , which became the most important employer in the town: in 1906 with 96, in 1921 with 159 and in 1936 with 216 employees.
National Socialist Persecution
Gérardmer was occupied by German troops on June 22, 1940. At that time there were many residents from Alsace and Lorraine who had been evacuated by the French government from September 1939 , including Jews. The part of the Jewish community that was unable to escape or go into hiding in time was deported and murdered from 1942 to 1944 . Those arrested first came to the camp in Ecrouves (near Toul ) and were taken to Auschwitz via the Drancy assembly camp and killed there. The textile manufacturer André Lévy and his family were among those murdered. The German troops set fire to the place when they withdrew in November 1944, so that 85% of the buildings, including the Jewish prayer room, were destroyed.
Few Jewish residents returned to Gérardmer after World War II. The survivors of the Lévy family rebuilt the textile factory and Jean Lévy, who ran the company after the murder of his brother André, became deputy mayor of the municipality from 1947 to 1965.
Community development
| year | Parishioners |
|---|---|
| 1850 | 20 people |
| 1864 | 48 people |
| 1867 | 105 people |
| 1876 | 137 families |
| 1889 | 112 people |
| 1899 | 106 people |
| 1910 | 80 people |
| 1940 | 40 people |
graveyard
In 1869 the Jewish community built its own Jewish cemetery next to the communal cemetery.
Chalet Cahen d'Anvers
During the Second Empire (1852-1870) Gérardmer was developed for tourism. The beauty of the Vosges also attracted the Jewish banking family Cahen d'Anvers, who had a chalet built near the lake and received numerous guests from political and cultural life there. Among them the writer Guy de Maupassant and the President of the French Republic Sadi Carnot (1837-1894).
literature
- Henry Schumann: Mémoire des communautés juives. Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse et Vosges . Editions Serpenoise, Metz 2003, ISBN 2-87692-585-0 .
