Selters Jewish community

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The Jewish community in Selters in the Westerwaldkreis ( Rhineland-Palatinate ) was probably founded in the 17th century when the local authorities settled protective Jews . It experienced a gradual decline due to emigration and emigration in the second half of the 19th century. The Jewish community went out in the wake of German Jews deported in the Nazi era .

History of the Selters community up to 1800

The history of the Jewish community in Selters begins as early as the 16th century when there is evidence that Jews were resident there. In 1585 an Adam the Jew is mentioned. Since 1670, the Count zu Wied demanded protection money from the Jews in his county. Jews lived in the Wiedischen parishes Heddesdorf , Niederbieber , Feldkirchen , Altwied , Rengsdorf , Honnefeld, Anhausen , Grenzhausen , Nordhofen and Rückeroth .

In 1688, in the last two parishes, a Judt Solmen (Salomon) zu Selters was recorded with ten Reichstalern protection money annually. In 1698 a Jew lives again in Selters: His name was Manus (Immanuel) and he paid three Reichstaler protection money a year. 1705 came to the family of the Manus that of Benjamin , of Joseph and of Mogendorf coming Salmen added. In 1712 the Hertz family moved in.

Selters was one of the four places in the county where livestock markets were held, making it an attractive place for Jewish citizens. In 1746 the Jews of Selters wrote a letter to the Reich Count Friedrich Wilhelm zu Wied about the construction of their own synagogue . The synagogue in Selters since 1705/06 was not a separate building. The background to the concern was also the increasing independence of the neighboring Jewish community of Mogendorf and its synagogue building.

In 1753 a total of twelve Jewish people lived in four families in Selters: A Nathan Levi converted to the Reformed Christian religion in 1754 and took the name Johann Jacob Wilhelm Nordhöfer because he lived in Nordhofen. In 1776 the four protective Jewish families in Selters paid a total of 32 Reichstaler protection money. Most were traders; In 1804, however, three families out of eight are so poor that they did not have to pay protection money.

In addition to the protection money, Jungbluth cites the following donations from the Jews to Count zu Wied: These were “hereditary grave permits, slaughter money, extra slaughter money, food money, marriage money, marriage music money, death allowance as well as cookery, hostel and lodging freedom”.

The Selters parish in the 19th century

When the former Wiedische Selters was added to the Duchy of Nassau in 1806 after the Peace of Lunéville in 1801 and the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803 , Duke Friedrich August von Nassau abolished the body duty in August 1806 , but announced an increase in the protection money. The Jews of Selters were exempted from this increase, but had to pay “a voluntary gift of 700 guilders”. Three quarters of the seven families who lived in Selters around 1815 had up to 75, three families had an estimated annual income of 150 guilders. The lowest annual income of the Jews in Selters was 25, the highest 150 guilders. Nine out of ten families traded, three of them were engaged in agriculture as well as trade. On average, each family paid 9 guilders and 20 Kreutz protection money. Proportionality played less of a role here. The families with the highest incomes paid the 13th part of their income, while those with low incomes had to pay a quarter of their annual income in protection money, which led to impoverishment for some families.

In the 19th century the number of Jewish residents developed as follows: in 1816/17 eight Jewish families, in 1823/24 nine families, in 1843 90 Jewish inhabitants, in 1871 95 (9.8% of a total of 972 inhabitants), 1885 70 (6, 6% of 1,062), 1905 101 (8.5% of 1,193). In the first half of the 19th century, the Jewish families lived mainly from the cattle trade and slaughter. There have also been craftsmen since the middle of the 19th century. Several shops opened on site.

In 1841 the Jews in the Duchy of Nassau were obliged to accept hereditary family names. Until then, they usually had the father's first name as a second or family name . In this way, the first-born son received the name of the grandfather, the second-born the name of the maternal grandfather. In 1841 the Jews of Selters adopted the following hereditary family names: Friedemann , Strauss or Strauss , Bernstein , Hofmann, Schweigert, Schwarz, Stern , Danzig, Altmann and Casparus , e.g. T. names of origin or house names from Frankfurt's Judengasse (Stern and Strauss). Several members of a Leymann family were active in the shooting society.

In addition to the protection money, the Jews of Selters also paid one to four guilders to the community and to their own religious community. They paid a self-imposed tax, school fees for the children and the rent of chairs for a place in the synagogue. In addition, there were fines, such as for inappropriate headgear on a holiday or for a naughty child.

In 1850 a total of 21 Jewish families from Selters, Herschbach , Nordhofen and Rückeroth bought the house of Kusel Strauss I on Waldstrasse as a synagogue building for 1,800 guilders. However, many families emigrated to the United States during this period. In addition to the synagogue, the Jewish community had a Jewish school (religious school), a ritual bath (Bahnhofstrasse 8 building) 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 1875 a teacher is named Löwenstein, who also worked for Singhofen. In 1884 the teacher named H. Stamm, who also worked in Maxsain. The community belonged to the rabbinical district Bad Ems or (after 1924) Bad Ems - Weilburg .

National Socialist Persecution

The community of Selters also experienced a gradual decline as a result of emigration and emigration from the second half of the 19th century. Among the Jewish associations there was the Israelite Women's Association Frauenchewrah (1932 under the direction of Lina Oster) and the Israelite Charity Association (founded in 1909, in 1932 under the chairmanship of Leopold Rosenau). The purpose was to support the local poor. There was also the men's chewra (1932 under the direction of Leopold Rosenau) and an Israelite youth association (1932 under the direction of teacher Siegfried Goldbach). A community library was also available.

The Jewish community went out in the wake of German Jews deported in the Nazi era . They emigrated to the USA (6 people), Palestine (5 people), England (6 people), Holland (2), Switzerland (3), South America (3) and Denmark.

The first pogrom took place in Selters as early as September 1938 , during which the window panes of Jewish properties and the synagogue were smashed. With the November pogrom of 1938 , Selters also carried out actions with the aim of destroying the Jewish place of worship and property. On November 10th, the synagogue was set on fire and Jews were taken from their homes and taken to the judicial prison in Selters, where Jews from the neighboring towns of Herschbach and Maxsain were also taken.

The two pogroms gave the remaining Jews the final impetus to leave Selters. Since 1933, all Jews left the place within six years. 91 people moved within Germany, 28 abroad. On October 3rd, Selters was - as it was called in Nazi jargon - " free of Jews " . On that day Simon Danzig left the town with his wife Ella and sister Berta for Cologne ; Simon is missing in Auschwitz , Ella and Berta were killed in Minsk . The 45 Jews from Selters were mostly deported to the east, for example to Auschwitz , Majdanek , Riga , Litzmannstadt , Minsk or Theresienstadt ; few families like the Weinberg family were able to immigrate to the United States.

Herbert Danzig, whose parents Simon and Ella Danzig went missing in the east, was the first American soldier to come to Selters in 1945. He arranged for the mayor to have the fence of the Jewish cemetery restored. The synagogue building passed to the Jewish community of Koblenz on July 3, 1948 . After the ban on sale was lifted , the building was sold on May 8, 1950 to the Mende joinery for 500 marks.

literature

Web links

  1. ↑ Judaice - Weblink
  2. ↑ Judaice - Weblink
  3. ↑ Judaice - Weblink
  4. ↑ Judaice - Weblink

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jungbluth states that a teacher in the neighboring village of Nordhofen earned 230 guilders a year as a school teacher , bell ringer, church servant and organist.
  • Uli Jungbluth : Country Jews in the Westerwald - The Selters Jews . In: Joachim Jölsch / Uli Jungbluth (ed.): Jews in the Westerwald. Life, suffering and remembrance . Montabaur 1998
  1. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 111 ff.
  2. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 112.
  3. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 113 ff.
  4. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 114.
  5. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 111 ff.
  6. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 115.
  7. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 117.
  8. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 118.
  9. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 118.
  10. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 123.
  11. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 126 ff.
  12. ↑ Jungbluth, p. 124.