Lichenroth Jewish community

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The Jewish community of Lichenroth in Lichenroth , a current part of the community of Lichenroth in the Main-Kinzig district , existed from the second half of the 17th century until the Nazi era .

History until 1933

A Samuel from Stadtlengsfeld is said to have settled in the village as the first Jewish resident of Lichenroth in 1666 . In 1680 there were three Jewish families in Lichenroth. They are said to have initially belonged to the Jewish community of Crainfeld in the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt , while Lichenroth was part of the County of Isenburg-Büdingen .

In 1835, 50 Jewish people lived in Lichenroth. In the course of the 19th century their share of the local population increased steadily. In 1861, 106 of the 504 inhabitants were Jewish (21%), in 1871 of 475 a total of 93 (19.6%). In 1885 there were 114 Jewish residents in Lichenroth, which was 22.1% of the total population (515). In neighboring Wüstwillenroth there were also some Jewish residents who belonged to the community in Lichenroth as early as the 1830s. The community had employed its own teacher who was responsible for religious instruction and general instruction at the Jewish elementary school , as well as prayer and shochet . The Jewish families in Lichenroth lived mainly from trading in cattle, textiles and iron goods. Some were also artisans such as shoemakers or bakers.

The Jewish men belonged to the local associations. In the First World War, two men fell out of the Jewish community Lichenroth. Felix Rosenberg, one of the two heads of the community in the 1920s, was also a member of the municipal council of the political community of Lichenroth. In 1933, 13 Jewish families were still living in Lichenroth, and one more in Wüstwillenroth.

Community institutions

synagogue

→ Main article: Lichenroth synagogue

In 1733 the Jewish community received permission from Count Wolfgang Ernst I. zu Isenburg and Büdingen to set up a synagogue. In 1837 a new synagogue was built, which in addition to the synagogue hall also contained an apartment for the teacher and prayer leader and a mikveh . The synagogue was sold in 1936/37 and used for decades as a hall for a restaurant before it was converted into a residential building in 1997/98.

school

The Jewish community of Lichenroth had its own religious school, which was converted into a public elementary school in 1853 . The Jewish schoolhouse was in the immediate vicinity of the synagogue. In 1853 25 children attended the Jewish school. In 1874 the number of school children had dropped to 14. Nevertheless, the school existed as a single-class elementary school until it was closed on December 1, 1924. It was continued as a private school with seven students. In 1932 the two remaining school-age Jewish children attended religious instruction in Crainfeld .

graveyard

→ Main article: Jewish cemetery (Birstein)

There was no separate Jewish cemetery in Lichenroth. The Jewish communities in Birstein , Fischborn , Hellstein and Lichenroth buried their dead in a communal cemetery near Birstein.

National Socialist Persecution

Shortly after the so-called seizure of power by the NSDAP , the first attacks on Jewish residents in Lichenroth took place. In March 1933, NSDAP members forced a local Jewish citizen to go through Lichenroth with the local bell and publicly “apologize” for an alleged insult to a local National Socialist. In 1935 there was a pogrom in Lichenroth against the Jewish families and their houses as well as a non-Jewish innkeeper known as an opponent of National Socialism. Due to the massive repression, all Jewish residents left the village by the end of 1936.

A total of 19 Jewish people born or resident in Lichenroth were murdered in the Holocaust or succumbed to the inhumane conditions in the concentration camps . Their names are recorded in the memorial book of the Federal Archives .

literature

  • Paul Arnsberg : The Jewish communities in Hesse. Beginning - Falling - New Beginning, Frankfurt am Main 1971
  • Jürgen Ackermann / Reinhold Winter: The Jews in Lichenroth , in: Geschichtsverein Birstein (ed.): 750 Years Lichenroth 1241-1991 , Lichenroth 1991, pp. 40–45
  • Christine Wittrock / Hannelore Vietze: The future will be terrible. Everyday history of National Socialism in Vogelsberg , Hanau 2005
  • Thea Altaras : Synagogues and Jewish ritual immersion baths in Hesse - What happened since 1945? , Königstein im Taunus 2007

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Archives: Memorial Book - Victims of Persecution of the Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany: 1933–1945. Retrieved December 1, 2015 .