Neckarsteinach Jewish community
There is evidence of a Jewish community in Neckarsteinach since the 15th century. The community built its own synagogue around 1806 , which was renovated in 1886. While the community went out in the course of the persecution of the Jews at the time of National Socialism , the synagogue building has been preserved to this day.
history
There is evidence of a Jewish community in Neckarsteinach since 1429. Due to Neckarsteinach's convenient location on the Neckar and the up to five annual markets in the city, the Jewish community developed brisk trade, although different statements are made about the prosperity or poverty of the community at different times. By 1750 the community had a size of around 40 people. The rest of the population had a varying relationship to the Jews. Due to " usury and superior commercial skill" of the Jews, a citizen petition to the city administration from 1801 applied to reduce the number of Jews living in the village. In 1803 there were nine Jewish families with a total of 50 to 60 people and the political community hindered the influx of further Jews by requiring a minimum amount of assets. In the course of the equality of Jews in Hesse, these restrictions fell away from 1823, and the relationship between the denominations also improved.
In the first years of the 19th century, the first synagogue was built on Hirschgasse in Neckarsteinach. Since the 17th century, the Neckarsteinach Jews buried their dead in the Jewish cemetery in Hirschhorn . In 1842 a ritual bath was set up in the city garden of Neckarsteinach , which was fed by the water from the city fountain. After the old synagogue had become dilapidated and a bottleneck formed in Hirschgasse and the flow of goods of the raftsmen to the Neckar, it was demolished in 1886. In its place a new synagogue with a teacher's apartment was built by 1889, which was set back one meter for the most part on the foundation walls of the previous building. The municipality has paid 1000 RM of the construction costs of 9,500 RM.
In the course of emigration and emigration, the size of the community has declined since the middle of the 19th century. In 1860 the community had a size of 60 people, around 1900 there were 44 people, in 1905 only 24. In the period after the First World War the size of the community increased again, so that around 1930 around 30 Jews were living in Neckarsteinach.
National Socialist Persecution
During the time of National Socialism there was the usual harassment against the Jewish community. In May 1935, two Neckarsteinach Jews were humiliated and taken into protective custody for alleged moral relationships with their Christian maids . In 1936 the city administration made efforts to exclude Jewish children from school. By 1938 the size of the community had decreased to 13 people due to emigration. During the November pogroms in 1938 , the Neckarsteinach synagogue was devastated on the evening of November 10, 1938 by National Socialists from Neckarsteinach and Ziegelhausen . The facility was burned on the banks of the Neckar. The synagogue probably escaped arson because of its non-Jewish tenants in the teacher's apartment and its location in the densely built-up old town. In the course of 1939, the town's Jewish community died out after the last Jews moved away. Most of the Jews living in Neckarsteinach during the Nazi era managed to emigrate abroad. A total of 16 former Neckarsteinach citizens of Jewish descent were murdered in the Holocaust or died from the inhumane conditions in the concentration camps.
The synagogue was used to house Polish prisoners of war and their guards during the Second World War. In 1950, the former tenants of the teacher's apartment bought the building and then converted it into a residential building with a shoemaker's workshop.
See also
literature
- Elisabeth Hinz: Neckarsteinach yesterday and today , Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Neckarsteinach 1992