Jewish community of Gemünden

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The Jewish community of Gemünden in the Westerwaldkreis ( Rhineland-Palatinate ) was a Jewish community whose roots go back to the Middle Ages . The Jewish community already experienced its decline in the middle of the 19th century and finally died out in 1934 in the course of the repression against Jewish citizens during the National Socialist era .

history

Jewish life in Gemünden already existed in the time before the pogroms against the Jews in the Middle Ages, when they fell victim to the first persecution after the Great Plague . Jews lived in the place as early as 1337. In 1610, a Jew lived here again when two other co-religionists asked to be accepted in the horse, cattle and junk trade. As early as 1728 there were three, in 1791 nine and 1801 ten Jewish households. A total of 31 Jews lived among the 533 citizens of Gemünd in 1760. In 1768 there was a Jewish ruler and in 1801 a Jewish school was mentioned, which was housed in an old farmhouse.

At the beginning of the 19th century there was also a synagogue , whose catchment area included the Jewish families living in Rennerod , although they wanted their independence in the middle of the 19th century and held their own services. These sought to become part of the Jewish community in Westerburg , as the Gemündener community was very poor and the Renneroder Jews had to bear the main financial burden. The Nassau state government , however, spoke out against the branch church service in Rennerod and the affiliation with Westerburg.

In the 19th century the number of Jewish residents developed as follows: In 1843 there were 37 Jewish residents in Gemünden, in 1895 and 1905 there were 39. The Jewish heads of the family were mainly active as traders and merchants, cattle dealers and butchers around 1890/1910. The Jewish community had a synagogue, a Jewish school, presumably a ritual bath and a cemetery . A teacher was employed to take care of religious tasks for the community, who was also active as a prayer leader and schochet . In 1840, Abraham Meier was named as the prayer leader, the last prayer leader was Heymann Simon. In 1848 the Gemündener synagogue was so dilapidated that the Jewish community applied for aid to renovate it, which was apparently rejected. From 1849 onwards, young Jews attended religious instruction in Westerburg. After the Jewish community of Westerburg applied for a connection between Gemünden and Westerburg in 1855, Rennerod and Gemünden joined the Jewish community of Westerburg in 18956. The synagogue was not renovated until 1860/61, when the ceiling was removed and a hall was created.

The end of the Jewish community in Gemünden
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Gemünden community melted down and the synagogue was given up. It was purchased by the Wiesbaden community in 1919 and converted into a residential building in 1924/25. Around 1924 the four Jewish people still living in Gemünden belonged to the Jewish community of Westerburg . The Jewish families had moved away from Gemünden in the previous years, especially after the neighboring Westerburg was increasingly developed into a railway junction between 1907 and 1910 . The last burial took place in the Jewish cemetery in 1923. In 1932 there was a desecration of the graves, during which gravestones were destroyed and defiled. The last Jewish citizens of the place, which at that time was already strongly influenced by the National Socialists , were the old couple Heimann and Karoline Simon. In August 1934 they emigrated to Rotterdam and were deported to Auschwitz during the Second World War .

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 ( online version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  • Uli Jungbluth : Gemünden . In: Joachim Jösch / Uli Jungbluth u. a. (Ed.): Jews in the Westerwald. Life, suffering and remembrance. A guide to the search for clues . Montabaur 1998, pp. 160-165
  1. ↑ a b Jungbluth, p. 160 f.
  2. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 161.
  1. ^ Judaica-alemannia - history of the Jewish community Hachenburg.
  2. ^ Judaica-alemannia - history of the Jewish community Gemünden.