Telgte Jewish Community

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The Telgte synagogue, construction drawing 1874.

The Jewish community Telgte existed since the 16./17. Century to 1941.

history

The first mention of a Jew in Telgte comes from the year 1539. In 1555 Salomon von Wasungen, who had been expelled from Münster , received a letter of safe conduct from Prince-Bishop Wilhelm Ketteler and from then on stayed in Telgte. In 1615 the first Jewish burial place in Telgte was acquired by another Solomon. The first mention of a synagogue , which also included a Jewish school , dates back to 1740 . The old Telgter synagogue, which was used as such until the end of the 19th century, has been preserved. The building is privately owned and stands between Steinstrasse and Emsstrasse. In 1779 there were a total of seven Jewish families in Telgte, in 1817 73 people belonged to the community. From 1848 Telgte was the seat of the synagogue community for the Münster district .

Because of the dilapidation and the growth in membership, the community decided in 1866 to build a new synagogue. However, this plan could only be implemented nine years later. The inauguration ceremony of the new synagogue at Königstrasse 43 took place on September 5, 1875.

“On September 5th, a synagogue was inaugurated in this small town, whose inhabitants are considered very loyal to the Pope, and many injustices that had recently been perpetrated against Jews here and in the vicinity have found atonement through the attitude of the population. […] The district administrator as well as the local mayor with the magistrate and the city council took part in the inauguration ceremony […] They also took part in these celebrations, although the clergy had given the slogan that participation in this festival was tantamount to apostasy from Christianity , a number of gentlemen and ladies from educated circles of the non-Jewish citizenry. "

- Contribution of the Westphalian Mercury , 1875.

The facade of the synagogue was divided by three high arched windows. There was an additional round window above the middle one. A little turret with a Star of David was attached to the top of the gable . The entrance was on the Judengangsken , which ran to the left of the front and was officially named that way. The only pictorial representation of the Telgter Synagogue is the architectural drawing from 1874. No images of the interior have survived. According to contemporary witnesses, the Torah scroll was kept in a Torah shrine adorned with a red velvet carpet at the front of the church in front of which the Bima stood. There were a total of five simple oak benches on each side. The inner walls were whitewashed, so that the stained glass of the windows stood out clearly. A crystal chandelier hung in the middle of the room. In the synagogue building there was a classroom as well as the apartment of the Jewish teacher.

Memorial plaque on the site of the Telgter Synagogue, Königstrasse.

When the " seizure of power " in 1933, only four Jewish families lived in Telgte: the families Max, Hermann and Jakob Auerbach as well as Siegfried Mildenberg. Most of the community members had already emigrated to Münster, for example, or had died - aging and withdrawal threatened the existence of numerous rural communities even before the “seizure of power”. During the November pogroms in 1938 , the synagogue was desecrated by SA men and schoolchildren: They threw in the windows, smashed the interior, threw cult objects on the street and dismantled the Star of David from the top of the gable. Then a fire was started. Unlike in the vast majority of places, the fire brigade intervened in Telgte on the evening of November 9th and put out the fire. The next day, the Reich Labor Service Director Weber, stationed in Telgte, refused to demolish the synagogue “ cold ”, which is why a second arson took place on the night of November 10th. This time the fire department did not intervene and watched the building burn to the ground. The ruin was sold below value and demolished.

In the period that followed, some of the remaining Jews from Telgte moved to other cities, but most were deported . Altogether there are 33 Telgans born in the Federal Archives' memorial book about the victims of the Holocaust . They were murdered in Riga , Łódź , Minsk , Izbica , Theresienstadt and Auschwitz . Of the Jewish residents of Telgte, only four survived who were able to emigrate to the United States and Palestine in 1938 and 1939, respectively . In 1941 the National Socialist Mayor of Telgter reported that his city was now “ free of Jews ”.

A residential building was built on the synagogue's property in 1955, and a plaque has been commemorating the place of worship since 1981. In 1988 Alfred Auerbach returned as a guest of honor to his hometown, which he has visited annually since then. In 1989 and 1998 the Grunewald and Mildenberg families were guests in Telgte. The association “ Remembrance and Warning - Association for the Promotion of Remembrance of the Jews in Telgte e. V ".

Telgte Jewish cemetery

Outer wall of the Jewish cemetery.
Memorial stele in memory of those buried in the Jewish cemetery.
Jewish Cemetery

The first Jewish cemetery in Telgte has its origins in the Jewish burial site approved in 1615. In 1769 the council approved a cemetery on Wall am Steintor. But as early as 1775, Prince-Bishop Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels had to intervene because the Telgter were digging up sand at the Jewish cemetery in order to use it for the embankment. When Telgte began razing its city walls in 1767, the council asked the Jewish community to move the cemetery, which they refused for religious reasons. The result was a dispute that lasted until the middle of the 19th century.

From 1820 the Telgter Jews buried their deceased in the new Jewish cemetery on Wallock. The last funerals took place there in 1936. On July 3, 1942, the city of Telgte acquired the area. In the same year the tombstones were cleared and used to fortify the Emswehr. Telgter planted an orchard in the cemetery. Today it belongs to the regional association of the Jewish communities of Westphalia-Lippe . Three of a total of 32 gravestones survived the destruction, two of which are now in the Jewish cemetery again.

A glass stele has been a reminder of the names of those buried since 2005. Paul Spiegel wrote the foreword for the brochure on the redesign of the cemetery .

literature

  • Memorial book for the Telgter victims of the Holocaust , ed. v. REMINDER AND ADMINISTRATION - Association for the promotion of memory of the Jews in Telgte e. V., Telgte 2008, 2nd revised and expanded edition 2009. ISBN 978-3-00-027958-4
  • Andreas Determann u. Susanne Freund: Jewish life in Prussian times , in: Werner Frese (Hrsg.): History of the city of Telgte . Münster 1999. pp. 503-519.
  • Matthias Ester: Warendorf , 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 Münster administrative district .
  • Elfi Pracht-Jörns : Jewish cultural heritage in North Rhine-Westphalia . Volume IV: Münster administrative district. JPBachem Verlag. Cologne 2002.
  • Gregor Rüter u. Rainer Westhoff: History and Fate of the Telgter Jews 1933-1945 . Edited by the city of Telgte. Telgte 1985.
  • Meier Schwarz (Ed.): Put a fire on your sanctuary. Destroyed synagogues in 1938 North Rhine-Westphalia . Pp. 519-20.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Set fire to your sanctuary, p. 520.
  2. ↑ Quoted from: The Auerbachs. Contribution to the 26th school competition for political education in 1996 . Vervielf., Telgte 1996. p. 3. Also published in: Feuer an Dein Heiligtumlegen, p. 520.
  3. ↑ Rüter u. Westhoff, p. 66.

Web links

Commons : Jewish history in Telgte  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files