Jewish community of Sendenhorst

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The Jewish community of Sendenhorst existed since the middle of the 18th century and became part of the Jewish community of Drensteinfurt in 1889 . The Jewish cemetery of Sendenhorst has been preserved.

History of the Jewish Community

The first mention of a Jew living in Sendenhorst comes from the year 1683. At that time the Jewish population of the place was under the protection of the Münster monastery and thus the prince-bishop. Around 1763 there were three Jewish families living in Sendenhorst, by the 1770s the number had doubled. In 1816, the number of Jewish residents in Sendenhorst was 43. Mayor Langen assessed their social circumstances as follows: “ The Jews live poorly and are nothing less than lavish in clothing, and their meager life has earned them a house and garden. [...] By the way, they still stick to their trade in cubits and short goods, but are very keen that the youth be well educated and therefore send them to Christian schools for private lessons. "

Since 1800 there was a synagogue in Sendenhorst . Whether this was identical to the later church on Schlabberpohl cannot be fully clarified, but it is likely. Under the chairmanship of the country's rabbi Abraham Sutro , Monachem Leeser became rabbi of Sendenhorst in 1816 . In the following years there were disputes between Sutro and Leeser about compliance with the Jewish laws of faith . Until the end of the 1840s, the Jews from Enniger also went to church in Sendenhorst. After many Jews emigrated to Münster as a result of the extensive rural exodus and smaller rural communities such as Sendenhorst had to suffer from a decline in membership, the synagogue was abandoned in 1889. No photograph of her has survived. After the church was sold, the new owners used it as a storage room, and in 1904 it was demolished. At its location, now a parking lot, a stele commemorates the Jewish community. Since 1889 the Jews of Sendenhorst attended the service in Drensteinfurt .

At the beginning of the 1890s, two large anti-Semitic events took place in Sendenhorst , each of which was attended by around 1,000 visitors. A member of the Leefmann family had made derogatory comments about the veneration of Mary and thus caused strong protests among the Catholics. After these events, many Sendenhorsters boycotted the few Jewish shops in town. This exacerbated the already charged relationship between Christian and Jewish citizens. The last Jewish family left Sendenhorst before the First World War .

Sendenhorst Jewish cemetery

In 1778 the city gave the Jewish community a lease on the former city wall, which served as a cemetery for the next 120 years. In 1809 the rabbi had to file charges with the community for desecration of the cemetery, which was also properly prosecuted and the perpetrators were arrested. In the 19th century the gravedigger of the Christian cemetery was also responsible for the Jewish deceased. In 1900, in order to prevent desecration in the anti-Semitic atmosphere, the community decided to pull a plastered brick wall around the cemetery. In the same year the last Jewish burial took place in Sendenhorst.

During the National Socialist era , when no Jews had lived in the city for two decades, local residents applied for the cemetery to be leveled. The youth of Sendenhorst would use it inappropriately, for example start a fire, dump rubbish or tear down trees. The citizens' request was not realized; so the burial place could be preserved. Today there are still 18 tombstones in the cemetery. On June 23, 1994 he was entered in the list of monuments of the city of Sendenhorst.

literature

  • Heinrich Petzmeyer: The Jewish community up to the beginning of the 19th century . In: Sendenhorst - history of a small town in the Münsterland . Published by the city of Sendenhorst. Sendenhorst 1993.
  • Elfi Pracht-Jörns : Jewish cultural heritage in North Rhine-Westphalia . Volume IV: Münster administrative district. JPBachem Verlag. Cologne 2002. pp. 480-483.
  • August Stefflage: An old Jewish cemetery on the city wall . In: Home calendar of the Beckum district . 1966, 29f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Petzmeyer, p. 281.
  2. ↑ Pracht-Jörns, p. 481.
  3. ↑ Petzmeyer, p. 284.