Jewish community of Vöhl
The Jewish community Vöhl in the district Vöhl of the community Vöhl in the north Hessian district Waldeck-Frankenberg existed from the 17th century until the time of the National Socialism .
Community development
The first Jewish residents were recorded in 1682. A house directory lists eight Jewish house and landowners in 1705, which, given the typical family size at the time, might mean around 50 to 60 people. Around 1850 up to 20% of the approximately 600 inhabitants of Vöhl were of Jewish faith. Their houses were mainly in the triangle Mittelgasse - Arolser Straße - Basdorfer Straße.
synagogue
The synagogue is first mentioned in 1827; previous planning records have not yet been found. The building was completed on July 17, 1827 and initially only served as a school. Two years later, on August 28, 1829, it was consecrated as a synagogue. The simple half-timbered building did not necessarily show that it was a sacred building, but a bar inscription above the ground floor announced:
- “In Jar 1827, July 17th, this Sinego was happily brought to Stant with God's help and power by the master carpenter Hillemann von Kirchlotheim and Heinrich Lai with his journeymen. God bless this building and all who go in and out ”.
In the ridge wall, which is barely visible from the street, there was a round window with a Star of David , which can still be found there today, and the opaque windows also indicated the special use of the building.
The building at Mittelgasse 9 survived the years of National Socialism somewhat unscathed, was renovated from 2002 by the local support group "Synagoge in Vöhl" and has been used as a cultural and meeting place since 2004.
Interior
The sacred room contained a gallery running all around , on which the women took part in the service; They were obviously protected from view by a diamond-shaped lattice made of narrow strips of wooden slats (such a lattice was found during the renovation work in the attic). The dome-shaped ceiling was light blue and painted with 297 gold stars and the shining moon in the center. A large seven-armed chandelier hung from the ceiling and was not sold until the 1970s.
On the south-east wall was the Torah shrine , whose triangular roof showed a nine-rayed halo on a dark background. The shrine itself was white, with a wine-red velvet curtain on which the two tablets of the Law with the Ten Commandments were embroidered. The two or three-step staircase to the Torah shrine was provided on both sides with a wooden railing with a carved vine tendril motif, as well as a carved forearm as a candle holder.
Of the other rooms in the building, one probably served as a heatable “winter synagogue”, the others as living rooms.
prehistory
Even then, Jewish services were probably being celebrated in Vöhl, probably in a private apartment. With the constant growth of the community, the synagogue was then built in Mittelgasse.
Jewish Cemetery
The dead were buried in Frankenau until 1830 . From 1831 a cemetery was laid out in Vöhl. The last burial took place in early March 1940. During the National Socialist era, the cemetery was desecrated in 1935 or 1936. In 1941 the authorities closed the cemetery and the tombstones were cleared; they should be used for construction work. Only after the end of the war, in 1946, were 46 gravestones returned to the cemetery. The cemetery has an area of 13.54 acres and is located in the northern part of the village on the street "Herzingsgrube".
End of the parish
While almost 100 Jewish citizens still lived in Vöhl in 1899, their number quickly declined in the early 1930s. Already in 1931 there were only 50 left. Many had emigrated in time, but more than 40 people were murdered in concentration camps or have been missing since they were forced to be deported . Until 1942 there were four old women living in the village; they were then deported and killed in various camps.
The last Jewish residents of the synagogue building emigrated to the USA in March 1938. The synagogue owes the fact that it survived the November pogroms of 1938 to the fact that it was “sold” just in time and the close proximity to neighboring buildings . The village children practiced target practice on the candlestick, but no major damage was done. The round window with the Star of David was destroyed and walled up. The sacred objects were probably brought to Kassel and destroyed there.
Later use
From 1938 to 1999 the building was used as a residential building. The sacred room served as a storage room, laundry drying room and building material store, but survived the decades almost unchanged. Only a toilet was built in in the 1970s, which was removed in April 2002. The last resident died in 1999.
renovation
The support group “Synagoge in Vöhl”, founded on November 9, 1999, acquired the building in February 2000, with a generous financial donation from the Vöhl community, and began work on securing and renovating it. The aim of monument preservation is the state around 1930, when it was last renovated.
The roof was repaired in 2000. In 2002 the west and north facades were renewed, in 2004 the east facade. In the synagogue part, the old windows have been carefully refurbished; the round window with the Star of David was renewed in January 2001. The living area received new windows with insulating glass. In October 2004 the gallery was stiffened. The dome with the ceiling was repaired by a restorer. A new ceiling chandelier, designed by the architect and former chairman of the Jewish Community of casting , thea altaras (1924-2004), and made by master blacksmith Heinrich Figge from Höringhausen , was inaugurated on November 9 of 2004. In December 2004, the newly manufactured entrance door based on the historical model was installed. The last facade was completely renovated in May / June 2005. The interior and the sandstone floor were renovated in 2005-2006 and provided with wall and floor heating. On September 7, 2007, a memorial created by Eva Renée Nele for the deported and murdered victims of National Socialism was inaugurated in Waldeck-Frankenberg.
Todays use
Today the building is used for concerts, lectures, film screenings, commemorations, etc.
Individual evidence
Web links and literature
- Support group "Synagoge in Vöhl" eV
- Dr. Monika Hölscher (Ed.) Working group Synagoge in Vöhl eV and the Breitenau Memorial , in the series Hessische GeschichteN 1933-1945 , HLZ 2014 Wiesbaden, ( Download pdf )
Coordinates: 51 ° 12 '24.5 " N , 8 ° 56" 44.9 " E