Reken Jewish Community
 
| |
Reken in the western Münsterland |
The Jewish community of Reken existed since 1856, when the Jews from Groß Reken and Klein Reken merged with those from Borken , Gemen , Heiden , Raesfeld , Ramsdorf and Velen to form the synagogue district of Borken, with Borken as the main town. With the construction of a synagogue in Groß Rekener Hauptstrasse in 1863, they formed an independent sub-community with their own church services. With the sale of the synagogue on March 29, 1938, Jewish life in Reken ceased.
First sources and evidence of Jewish life in Reken
The oldest written evidence of Jewish residents in Reken is contained in the general guides of the Münster prince-bishops . From 1749 Philipp Ansel is mentioned in Klein Reken and from 1773 his son Ascher Philip and in Groß Reken Alexander Mendel. A case file of the Schulzenhof from 1840 shows that Mendel Löwenstein and his brother Wolf Löwenstein were born in 1774 in Groß Reken.
Jewish life until the end of the Weimar Republic
At the beginning of the 19th century, the number of Jewish families in Reken grew. In the original cadastre of Groß Reken from 1821 three Jewish families appear, in the Klein Reken original cadastre from 1825 two Jewish families.
By the middle of the 19th century, the number of Jews in Groß Reken and Klein Reken rose sharply. In a list of the district administrator in Borken regarding the formation of synagogue communities from 1848, five Jewish families with 27 members are listed in Groß Reken and three families with 17 members in Klein Reken. The Jews of Reken practiced the traditional professions for Jews. In 1848, the occupation of the five men in Groß Reken and the three men in Klein Reken, except for one, was given the job title “small trader”. Only a few broke through this structure. There was a locksmith, a stocking weaver, and two teachers.
In 1905 28 of the 2,265 inhabitants of Groß Reichen were Jews, of 433 inhabitants of Klein Reichen 13 Jews. At least for the beginning of the 20th century it can be said that the Jewish families in Groß Reken were accepted. The male Jews in Reken did their military service like the rest of the Reken. Six Jewish men from Groß Reken and one Jew from Klein Reken took part in the First World War.
In 1925 there were still 18 Jews living on site (14 in Groß Reken, 4 in Klein Reken). No public anti-Semitic attacks were known from Reken before the Nazi era .
Families in Groß Reken and Klein Reken
A systematic recording of Jewish persons born, deceased or married in Reken has only been possible since 1875, since the relevant civil status registers have been preserved from this year . After that, around 1900 the families Simon Lebenstein (house no.16), David Lebenstein (house no.48), Silberschmidt (house no.7), Misch (house no.8), Rosenbaum (house no 10) and Metzger (house no. 14), in Klein Reken the two families Abraham (Anschel) Humberg (house no. 17) and Moses Humberg (house no. 40) can be proven at this time.
Assignment to synagogue communities
According to the statute of the 5th time in 1856, Groß Reken formed an independent sub-community to the main synagogue community of Borken. Since 1909 she was a member of the German-Israelite Community Association .
Jewish school
At the end of the 19th century, classes were held in a private house for Jewish children from the Reken area. In 1908 there were 20 Jewish schoolchildren in Groß Reken. In 1909, teacher Gustav Bär from Gemen taught religion to nine Jewish children from Groß Reken and two from Klein Reken and received a grant from the “German-Israelite Community Association”. In 1924/25 three more children were instructed in the Jewish religion. After the First World War, Jewish children from Groß Reken attended the Jewish school in Borken.
Jewish cemeteries and the synagogue in Reken
While there was a Jewish cemetery in the districts of Groß Reken and Klein Reken , only the district of Groß Reken had its own prayer room.
Cemetery in Groß Reken
The Jewish cemetery in Groß Reken has been preserved and was entered in the list of monuments on February 24, 1998 . It is located in a small wooded property immediately north of the “Kerkenberg” housing estate. The property is surrounded by a hedge and is 441 m² in size. 14 graves can still be seen. The oldest gravestone with a legible inscription dates from 1889 (Salomon Lebenstein), the youngest from 1941 (Herta Simon). In 1985 the Reken community erected a memorial stone in the Groß Reken cemetery. The gravestones were restored in 2001 by the municipality with grants from the state budget. The grove that surrounds the Jewish cemetery now belongs to John Albert Roberts from Sydney. It was previously owned by his grandfather and then his mother.
Cemetery in Klein Reken
The former Jewish cemetery in Klein Reken was originally in the municipality of Lembeck-Wessendorf at the intersection of Dorstener Straße / Mühlenweg. In 1905 a part of the area of 326 m² was sold to the merchant Bernhard Rensing for 1000M. The money was to be used to renovate the synagogue in Groß Reken, which was in need of repair. Today the property (corridor 4, no. 18) has an area of 364 m². The tombstones were probably cleared during the National Socialist era and the cemetery area leveled. A memorial stone points to this former burial place of the Klein Rekener Jews.
Ahaus | Anholt | Bocholt | Bark | Alder | Gemen | Gescher | Gronau | Legden | Raesfeld | Reken | Schöppingen | City wages | South wage | Vreden : Old Cemetery , New Cemetery
Synagogue in Groß Reken
As the Jewish community in Groß Reken grew in the middle of the 19th century, it set up its own prayer room in Hauptstrasse, which was inaugurated from August 28th to 30th, 1863.
The non-Jewish family Rössmann, who lived in the other part of the house in the 1920s and 30s and ran a tobacco shop, looked after the prayer house and could therefore live there rent-free. In the middle of the 19th century there is also said to have been a prayer room in Klein Reken, but it can no longer be located. It can be assumed that it was abandoned with the construction of the synagogue in Groß Reken and that the Klein Reken Jews took part in the services in Groß Reken.
Since only one Jewish family had lived in Groß Reken since April 1, 1938, the synagogue, which had been used on the public holidays until a few years earlier, along with the 653 m² property, was opened on March 29, 1938 by Levie Schwarz from Raesfeld, Oskar Löwenstein from Gemen and Leo Jonas from Borken as representatives of the Reken synagogue sub-community sold to a resident of Groß Reken for RM 5,500. Towards the end of the Second World War , the building was partially destroyed by bombs. Today there is a new house built in the 1970s.
The reprisals and persecutions during the Nazi regime
At the beginning of National Socialist rule, the three Jewish families Lebenstein / Levinstein (village no.110, today Harrierstrasse 13), Lebenstein (village no.160, today Surkstamm) and Silberschmidt (village no.102, today Harrierstrasse 2) lived in Groß Reken. Johanna (Hannchen) Humberg stayed in Klein Reken. A time of repression and discrimination began for all of them . In front of the Lebenstein / Levinstein and Silberschmidt houses, SA officers called on the citizens of Reken to boycott the shops. Ironically, in front of the Silberschmidt house, a display case was set up for the striker's hate speech . In autumn 1933, Hermann Levinstein and Samuel Silberschmidt were expelled from the volunteer fire brigade because of their race "on higher orders" . Eight comrades then left the fire brigade in protest.
The Lebenstein / Levinstein family
In the 1920s, the Lebenstein department store was not only a leader in Reken, but also had numerous business connections beyond Reken. Hermann Levinstein, who married into the Lebenstein family and brought the business to the leading department store in Reken and the surrounding area in the 1920s, lost his supervisory board positions at the banks. His wife Berta committed suicide in 1936. Her brother, Albert Lebenstein, also committed suicide on September 7 or 8, 1939. He was a dermatologist and practiced in Cologne, but often stayed in Groß Reken. After the death of his wife, Hermann Levinstein sold his business in 1937 and moved to Dorsten . On January 23, 1942, he was deported to Riga along with other Jews from Dorsten . Hermann Levinstein is thought to be missing, but it is certain that he was murdered. His brother-in-law Fritz Lebenstein was also killed in a concentration camp.
The other family members managed to flee abroad. In the summer of 1938, Selma Lebenstein and her husband Phillip Gumpert emigrated to Palestine and Anna Lebenstein and Otto Lebenstein to Australia in the same year . Hanni Levinstein, Hermann and Berta's only daughter, also emigrated to Australia with her husband.
Lebenstein family (Surkstamm)
A second Lebenstein family lived in Groß Reken on today's Surkstamm and was not related to the Lebensteins / Levinsteins in today's Harrierstrasse. The parents David and Berta Lebenstein lived from agriculture and cattle trade. They had three children: Alex, Marta and Leopold. The son Leopold worked at home as a saddler and upholsterer. Marta was a domestic worker in Wesel. A brother of David Lebenstein by the name of Salomon was called “poor Jews”. He was a little retail trader and was largely supported by his brother and neighbors.
Alex and Leopold Lebenstein emigrated to Palestine shortly after 1933. When the deportations began at the end of 1941, her sister Marta Lebenstein was brought to Münster on December 10, 1941 and deported to Riga on December 13, from there to the Stutthof concentration camp in 1944 , where she perished. Her parents, David and Berta Lebenstein, as well as Salomon Lebenstein were part of the transport from Münster to Theresienstadt on July 31, 1942. In September 1942, all three were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp . You fell victim to the Holocaust .
Silberschmidt family
Samuel Silberschmidt was a cattle dealer, his wife Rosa ran a textile shop very close to the Levinsteins. Their two children Fritz and Julia managed to escape from Germany. Fritz Silberschmidt fled via the Netherlands (1937) to Argentina (1938). His sister Julia emigrated to Chile with her husband Richard Wolff, whom she married in 1936, and their little daughter in 1939 . Her parents tried to emigrate in October 1941. Samuel Silberschmidt was able to emigrate from Berlin via Lisbon to Argentina on October 23, 1941 , while his wife Rosa had to stay behind because she was not yet 60 years old and the emigration of Jews who were below this age limit was now prohibited. She was later deported from Gemen to an extermination camp.
Johanna Humberg in Klein Reken
Of the Humberg family, only Johanna (Jewish Hannchen) lived in Klein Reken until 1938. She owned the right to live in the house of the Theodor Rentmeister family and made a living by sewing. In 1938, her brother Sally brought Johanna Humberg to Essen and found her a place in an old people's home. She was 72 years old at the time. From there she was later deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she perished on August 25, 1942.
After the holocaust
After the Second World War, former Jewish residents or their descendants no longer settled in Reken. Fritz Silberschmidt and the only son of Hanni Roberts, née Levinstein, John Albert Roberts from Sydney , visited Groß Reken several times.
Refunds
In the first years after the war, the brothers Leopold and Alex Lebenstein, now in Israel, claimed the inheritance of their murdered parents David and Berta Lebenstein and their sister Martha. After their deportation, the house and property were confiscated by the German Reich and the household goods were publicly auctioned. The reparation chamber at the regional court in Münster ruled on December 11, 1953 that the current tenant was allowed to take possession of the house and property by paying a sum of money. In 1956, the Lebensteins received financial compensation from the fund for blocked assets for the auctioned household items.
On February 17, 1947, his only daughter Johanna Roberts, residing in Sydney, made claims to the estate of Hermann Levinstein. After several proceedings before the Chamber of Reparations at the Regional Court in Münster, the parties finally reached an agreement on additional payments by the buyer. The last trial was completed on March 21, 1952.
In 1951, Samuel Silberschmidt from Argentina had reached a private agreement with two former buyers from Groß Reken on a corresponding additional payment for his office building and a piece of land. Further reimbursement procedures were unnecessary, as Silberschmidt confirmed in writing to another businessman from Reken that he had actually acquired a total of three properties from him in 1937/38.
For the synagogue community of Borken, the Jewish Trust Corporation (JTC) raised a claim to the house and the property of the synagogue sub-community of Groß Reken. These proceedings ended on October 22, 1952 with a settlement between the JTC and the widow of the buyer who died in the war.
Contacts between citizens of Reken and emigrated Jews or their descendants
After the war, there were letters of contact between emigrated Jews and citizens of Reken. Fritz Silberschmidt visited Reken several times with his wife Hilde and maintained contact with the Lütkebohmert and Hesterwerth families. Both spouses have since passed away. John Albert Roberts from Sydney, only son Johanna Roberts, née Levinstein, still maintains personal contact with the Möller (Reken) and Meirick (Heiden) families. He has visited Reken and the Münsterland several times, including with his family.
Memorial sites and memorial stones
In 1981 the Jewish cemeteries in Groß Reken and Klein Reken were repaired. A memorial stone was inaugurated on the Klein Reken cemetery with the inscription "The place you stand on is holy ground. Exodus 3.5. Jewish cemetery". In 1985, the Reken community erected another memorial stone on the Groß Reken cemetery. In addition to the same quotation from the Bible, it bears the addition: "In honor of the memory of the Jewish fellow citizens of our community who were victims of the Nazi tyranny between 1933 and 1945. Reken community". On December 13, 2005, a memorial sheet for the Lebenstein / Levinstein family was read out in the “ Villa ten Hompel history ” in Münster and added to the “memorial book” kept there. On March 6, 2009, a memorial stone was unveiled near the former synagogue building, the text of which can be read in the picture opposite.
literature
- Meirick, Georg: Local article Reken (Groß Reken and Klein Reken) . In: Publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia: Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Westphalia and Lippe, The localities and territories in today's administrative district of Münster. Münster 2008 ISBN 978-3-87023-282-5 pp. 595-602
- Meirick, Georg / Möller, Gerda Marie: The fate of the Jewish community in Reken. In: Our home. Yearbook of the Borken district. 1984, pp. 257-260
- Schulze Holthausen, Bernhard: The Jewish community in Reken and its downfall in 1942. In: Westmünsterland . Yearbook of the Borken district. 1994, pp. 200-204
Web links
A PowerPoint presentation with the title Jewish life in Reken can be found on the projects website of the Reken Heimatarchiv.
notes
- ↑ to this Abraham, b. 1852 in Klein Reken, his mother's name was Anschel, and his descendants in Dingden from 1882 see in detail the Humberghaus
- ↑ A female descendant in one of the two Humberg families was Rosa, married. Heumann, b. Humberg, b. August 17, 1875 in Klein Reken, she lived in Eschweiler . Deported on March 22, 1942 from the Koblenz-Lützel marshalling yard to the Izbica ghetto , her further fate is unknown; she was pronounced dead. Another family member was Levi Humberg, b. July 14, 1887 in Klein Reken, last known place of residence in Wuppertal-Elberfeld ("Judenhaus" established by the National Socialists), previously living in Bottrop and Gladbeck. Deported on November 10, 1941 from Düsseldorf to the Minsk ghetto , lost there. ( Source )