Jewish community of Jever

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Star of David in the gable of a Jever house
Jeversche Synagogue around 1900
Jever Synagogue - destroyed during the Night of the Pogroms in 1938
Development of the Jewish community

The history of the Jewish community of Jever goes back to the first half of the 16th century. It ended with the destruction of their synagogue on the Night of the Reichspogroms in 1938 and the subsequent deportation of the Jewish residents of Jever . Of the 50 Jews who still lived in the Frisian district town in 1938 , only 12 were able to save themselves by fleeing abroad.

history

The story of a Jewish healer who is not known by name and who is said to have saved the life of Jever chief Edo Wiemken in a poisoning attack in 1497 gives the first indication of the existence of Jewish life in Jever. Another clue can be found in a property register from 1587. A Jewish cemetery in front of the city gates is mentioned here. A letter of protection for Meyer Levi, who lives in Jever, issued by Prince Carl Wilhelm , Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , is the first evidence of a permanent Jewish settlement in Jever. The so-called pardon is dated July 25, 1698 and responded to an application in which the aforementioned Meyer Levi had applied for a residence permit in Jever “for himself and his family”. In the letter of protection he is given permission to live in the Jever estate , which at that time belonged to Anhalt-Zerbst as an exclave , and to practice his trade. However, this permit was subject to a number of conditions. He was allowed to trade and peddle freely , but it was forbidden to buy real estate. Meyer Levi rented a house for himself and his family on Neue Straße, which was laid out in 1650, and ran a second-hand goods and banking business there.

After the death of Carl Wilhelm (1718), his son and successor Johann August refused to confirm the letter of protection and restricted the rights of the Jews of Jever. The Jever landscape , which represented the estates of Jeverland , also opposed the local Jewry, which had meanwhile increased to five families through the marriage of the Levi children. In addition, the Jews of Jever withstood all attempts at conversion by the Evangelical Lutheran regional church and also tried in 1725 to set up a prayer room and to hold Sabbath services there with the help of the Neustadtgödens rabbi . A feast of tabernacles in 1732 resulted in military action. The huts built for the festival were destroyed along with their furnishings. These and other events led to Johann Ludwig II , who had been Oberlanddrost in Jever from 1720 and who had ascended the prince's throne in Zerbst in 1742, ordered the expulsion of all Jews living in Jever. However, the Jewish Feilmann family stayed in Jever afterwards.

It was not until 1776 that the situation of the Jeversian Jews improved. The restrictive measures were now replaced by tolerance. Hartmut Peters attributes this liberalization to the soldier trade that Prince Friedrich August , who has ruled since 1747 , carried out with England and which led many foreign men to the garrison town of Jever, including many members of non-Lutheran religious communities. On May 9th of the year mentioned in the rule of Jever "the Reformed and Catholics and also the Jews" were granted the freedom to practice their religion. As a result, on September 29, 1779, the small Jewish community was able to dedicate its first house of prayer . It was located on the corner of Schlachtstrasse and Lohne in the back of a building that still stands today. Most of the Jeverschen Jews lived on Neue Strasse at that time , which branched off from Schlachtstrasse and was popularly known as Judenstrasse .

21 years after the inauguration of the first house of prayer - the Jewish community now numbered around 100 members - a plot of land for the construction of a synagogue was acquired on Grosse Wasserpfortstrasse . A loan of 1000 Reichstaler was taken out for the construction project , which the financially weak community could only repay with great effort in the following decades. The inauguration of the new synagogue took place in 1802. A Jewish elementary school was also established, which was attended by around 20 pupils in the first half of the 19th century. After more and more children from Jewish families were enrolled in public schools, the Jewish elementary school developed into a religious institute in the second half of the century. Between 1855 and 1900 the Jewish community of Jevers grew from 125 to 209 people and thus represented 4% of the total population of Jevers. One of the reasons for this development was Jever's economic boom during these years. Among other things, Jever's connection to the railway network was responsible for this. This had a positive effect, above all, on the traditional cattle and horse trade and thus on an economic sector in which around 40% of Jewish households earned a living.

Around 1890 there was an attack on the Jever synagogue, as a result of which the property wall collapsed. The police investigations were unsuccessful, although a premium had been suspended for the perpetrator (s). Five years after the attack, a clergyman who had meanwhile emigrated to the United States contacted the teacher of the Jewish community and gave written pleading of the attack. At the same time he named the accomplices and asked for forgiveness, which was officially granted to him.

Schenum Jewish Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery in Jever-Schenum is on the road that leads from Jever to Cleverns . It was created at the end of the 18th century. Nothing is known about the location of the previous cemetery; but it was probably also in the area of ​​the Jever suburb. There are still 220 tombstones in the Schenum cemetery today. The oldest is from 1796, the youngest so far (2012) dates from 1982. The last-mentioned stone bears the name of Fritz Levys , who is considered to be the last Jew from Jever. A memorial donated by his brother Erich Levy commemorates the former Jewish citizens of Jever who were murdered during the Nazi era or who escaped and emigrated to safety.

During the Reichspogromnacht from November 9th to 10th 1938, the synagogue on Grosse Wasserpfortstrasse was completely destroyed by arson.

Commemoration

Memorial to the murdered Jews of Jever

In Jever there are several visible references to the former Jewish community. This includes the bronze plaque at the location of the former synagogue at Grosse Wasserpfortstrasse 19. In Fräulein-Marien-Strasse there is a memorial that was erected in 1996 and commemorates the Jews from Jever who were murdered in the Holocaust. 67 names of the victims and the place of their murder are recorded on three stacks of so-called books of life. The memorial was built according to plans by the Oldenburg artist Udo Reimann .

The old people's home of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt on Anton-Günter-Straße was named after the Jew Marianne Sternberg. She was the mother of Martin Sternberg, who made a generous donation possible in the 1920s to build a retirement home. The Hermann-Gröschler-Weg keeps the memory of the last chairman of the Jewish community alive. Until 1933 he was also a member of the Jever city council.

The local department of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation organizes a special commemorative event every year to commemorate the Reichspogromnacht. It takes place on November 8th in front of the site of the former synagogue. The Jever Baptist Congregation offers guided tours to the places where former Jewish Jeverans lived . They take place several times a year and are presented in a brochure.

The Mariengymnasium holds an exhibition on the history of the Jews in Jever. Its beginnings go back to research in the 1980s that the pedagogue Hartmut Peters undertook with high school students in the history of the school and town. Since 2014, the exhibition has been located in a former commercial building that was built in the post-war years on the site of the synagogue that was destroyed in the Reichspogromnacht on Grosse Wasserpfortstrasse . A center for Jewish history and contemporary history of the Friesland / Wilhelmshaven region was established there. It bears the name GröschlerHaus and is reminiscent of the brothers Hermann (1880–1944) and Julius Gröschler (1884–1944), the last two heads of the Jever synagogue community. Both died in the concentration camp ; Hermann Gröschler in Bergen – Belsen and Julius Gröschler in Auschwitz.

literature

  • Hartmut Peters: The “Reichskristallnacht” in Jever and the history of the Jever synagogues. Jever 1992, OCLC 47145365 .
  • Hartmut Peters: The pogrom of 9./10. November 1938 in Jever and the history of the Jever synagogues from 1698 to 1988. In: Enno Meyer (Hrsg.): The synagogues of the Oldenburger Land. Oldenburg 1988, ISBN 3-87358-311-9 , pp. 41-121.
  • Hartmut Peters: Exiled citizens. The Jews from Jever. Jever 1984, DNB 850411394 .
  • Leo Trepp: The Oldenburg Jews. Oldenburg 1973, ISBN 3-87358-056-X .
  • Herbert Obenaus (Ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 2, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , pp. 908-928.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Werner Meiners, Hartmut Peters: Jever. In: Herbert Obenaus (Ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume II, Göttingen 2005, p. 909.
  2. ↑ Compare Hartmut Peters: The "Reichskristallnacht" in Jever and the history of the Jever synagogues. Jever 1992, p. 4.
  3. ↑ Compare to Friedrich Wilhelm Remmers: History of the Jeverland. Volume III, Jever 1931, p. 213; Hartmut Peters: Reichskristallnacht. 1992, p. 5.
  4. ↑ Hartmut Peters: Reichskristallnacht. 1992, p. 10.
  5. ^ History of the prayer hall / synagogue Allemannia Judaica: On the history of the prayer hall / synagogue ; accessed on January 2, 2013.
  6. ↑ Klaus-Dieter Alicke: Lexicon of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area , Volume II (Großbock to Ochtendunk), Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-08078-9 , pp. 2093f
  7. ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums of November 22, 1895; quoted from Allemannia Judaica: On the history of the prayer hall / synagogue (in Jever) ; accessed on March 10, 2013
  8. ↑ Nordwestzeitung dated December 2, 2011: Jewish cemetery is a sacred place for eternity (PDF; 192 kB); accessed on March 28, 2013
  9. ↑ Werner Beyer: Where did Jever's Jewish citizens live? A special guide through Marienstadt , Jever 2013