Jewish community of Straubing

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A Jewish community has existed in Straubing since the middle of the 13th century. Despite its eventful and sometimes painful history, it forms the center of Jewish life in Lower Bavaria . Your synagogue is the only one left in Lower Bavaria. Therefore, the municipality covers all of Lower Bavaria, with branches in Deggendorf , Landshut , Passau , Plattling and Vilshofen .

history

Middle Ages until 1906

The existence of Jews in the city of Straubing has been documented since the middle of the 13th century. Formally, these were subject to the jurisdiction of the Bavarian dukes of the Duchy of Bavaria-Straubing or, after 1425, of the Duchy of Bavaria-Munich . However, the community suffered persecution and severe pogroms several times . The persecution of Jews emanating from Deggendorf also spread to Straubing towards the end of 1338 and ended with looting and burning of the Jews. The Duke did not intervene in the anti-Jewish activities and instead freed the citizens of all debts to Jews by decree. Just a few years later, all Jewish persons were again murdered during the persecution of the Jews at the time of the Black Death in 1348–49.

After the pogroms of the time of the plague, from 1366 onwards some Jewish families settled in the city again. Despite the severe persecution and discrimination in daily life, the intellectual and cultural life of the Jewish community flourished in the period that followed. The Jewish quarter of the city was located in the Judengasse (today Rosengasse) until modern times. Since they were denied access to traditional guild professions , the Straubing Jews, like in most other cities in Europe, were mainly active in money trading and finance. The most important money dealer of the 15th century was Michel von Straubing, who was granted privileges by the dukes.

Presumably in 1442, a few years after Duke Albrecht took office, all Jews were expelled from Straubing. They mostly fled to the surrounding cities of Landshut and Regensburg . Thus, Jewish life in the city of Straubing had come to a standstill for almost 400 years from the middle of the 15th century. Only in the course of the establishment of universal civil rights were Jewish people able to settle in the city again from the middle of the 19th century. 4 Jewish residents were counted in 1867, 22 in 1871, 36 in 1880, 41 in 1890. After the number of Jewish families in Straubing rose steadily, a prayer room was founded in 1897 under the chairmanship of the banker Salomon Lippmann and thus a Jewish community in the real sense.

1907 to 1932

Invitation to the inauguration of the synagogue from 1907

The year 1907 marks a milestone in Straubing's Jewish history, as the synagogue , which still exists today, was built at Wittelsbacherstraße 2 in that year . It was built according to plans by the architect Hans Dendl in a neo-Romanesque style in just five months and was looked after by the Regensburg district rabbi.

Some members of the Straubing community were among those killed in the First World War . In 1923 a Jewish cemetery was created. In 1925 the Jewish community already numbered 102 people. Jewish life in Straubing flourished. A number of Jewish associations emerged, such as the Chewra Kadischa founded in 1908 , which pursued charitable goals and was in charge of the funeral service, as well as an Israelite women's association. In 1932, 115 Jewish people lived in Straubing. From the surrounding Lower Bavarian cities, 45 people in Landshut, 48 in Passau , 21 in Vilshofen , 15 in Deggendorf and 13 in Plattling belonged to the Straubing community. There were also numerous Jewish shops and businesses in the city.

1933 to 1945

Immediately after the National Socialists came to power , the new regime immediately proceeded with brutal violence against the 110 Straubing Jews. In March 1933 the dealer Otto Selz was kidnapped by SA people in a forest near Landshut and murdered. From August 1933 Jews were forbidden to bathe in the Danube. Jewish businesses were covered with a general boycott, the so-called Jewish boycott , compliance with which the NSDAP strictly monitored. In the following years , more and more Jews from Straubing emigrated .

On November 9, 1938, the interior of the synagogue was devastated during the November pogrom and a Jewish shop was looted. In contrast to other nationwide pogroms in Germany, the synagogue itself was preserved. SS men had already provided gasoline to set the synagogue on fire. An objection from the fire brigade commander, who feared the flames would spread to surrounding buildings, saved the synagogue at the last minute. All Jewish men and some of the women were arrested. Of the 30 community members who were still living in Straubing in April 1942, 21 were deported to Piaski near Lublin and murdered, five in September 1942 and one in February 1945 to Theresienstadt concentration camp .

After 1945

Immediately after the end of the war, a box was handed over to the police. It contained the Torah scrolls , candlesticks and various cult objects that had been looted when the synagogue was stormed and looted during the November pogrom. It could not be reconstructed which of the SS men secretly brought the items to safety and kept them until the end of the war.

In addition, three members of the former Jewish community returned to Straubing shortly after the end of the war. In February 1946, survivors of concentration camps, so-called displaced persons , who had come together in Straubing, founded a new Jewish community. Before that, around 700 Displaced Persons led by an American rabbi had held a thanksgiving service in the severely damaged synagogue in May 1945 .

After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, a large number of the Jewish people who had temporarily settled in Straubing left the city. Yet the church continued to exist. In 1976 it comprised 126 Jewish people, more than in the pre-war period.

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the synagogue, extensive renovations were carried out. The synagogue complex also includes a community center and a mikveh . After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the federal government's promotion of Jewish immigration , the number of community members has risen sharply since the 1990s. In 2008, the community had around 1,700 members.

Stumbling blocks in front of the entrance to the Straubing Synagogue

Due to the tenfold increase in the number of parishioners within just 20 years, the premises had become too small, so that in 2006 an extension was completed on the synagogue's property. The construction costs for this amounted to 870,000 euros , of which the Bavarian state government contributed almost half. In addition to a new community hall for 250 people, there is now also an archive, a library and a leisure room for young people. In addition, a new cemetery was laid out in the Lerchenhaid district in 2002.

In 2007, the centenary of the synagogue in Straubing was celebrated in the presence of the Bavarian State Minister Erwin Huber and other people from the political, cultural and spiritual life. On August 13, 2008 and April 24, 2013, the artist Gunter Demnig laid a total of 18 stumbling blocks in memory of Straubing victims of the expulsion by the National Socialists and the Shoah .

As of 2016, the Straubing-Niederbayern religious community had 863 members.

Shlomo Appel (1933–2013) looked after the community for 13 years as a rabbi. Israel Offmann (1925-2018), as long-time chairman of the religious community, played a key role in its reconstruction after 1945.

See also

literature

  • Anita Unterholzner: Straubing Jews - Jewish Straubing. Straubing 1995.
    Guido Scharrer: Straubing - the Jewish center of Lower Bavaria, excursion sheets on the history and culture of the Jews in Bavaria. Edited by the House of Bavarian History, undated (1995/96).
  • Pinkas Hakehillot: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities from their foundation till after the Holocaust. Germany - Bavaria . Edited by Yad Vashem, 1972, pp. 141-150 (Hebrew).
  • Baruch Z. Ophir, Falk Wiesemann : The Jewish communities in Bavaria 1918–1945. History and destruction . 1979, pp. 64-74.
  • Israel Schwierz: Stone evidence of Jewish life in Bavaria. A documentation . Ed. from the Bavarian State Center for Political Education . Munich 1988, ISBN 3-87052-393-X , pp. 333-334.
  • Article on the 80th anniversary of the synagogue in the Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 209 from 12./13. September 1987, p. 25.
  • Barbara Eberhardt, Angela Hager: “More than stones…” Synagogue Memorial Volume Bavaria, Volume I: Upper Franconia - Upper Palatinate - Lower Bavaria - Upper Bavaria - Swabia. Edited by Wolfgang Kraus, Berndt Hamm and Meier Schwarz , 2007.
  • Synagogue Memorial Jerusalem, Vol. 3: Bavaria. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu. ISBN 978-3-98870-411-3 , pp. 321-343.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Communities: Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Straubing-Niederbayern Kdö.R. In: www.zentralratderjuden.de. Accessed May 31, 2018 .
  2. ^ Straubing is in mourning: Rabbi Shlomo Appel died at the age of 80. In: www.juedische-allgemeine.de. January 2, 2014, accessed June 1, 2018 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 53 ′ 3 ″  N , 12 ° 34 ′ 0 ″  E