Jewish life in Witten

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The influx of Jews to Witten began at the beginning of the 19th century. The Jewish community reached its peak around 1910 with around 500 members. Today there is no longer a separate Jewish community in Witten. The approx. 100 (as of 2012) Jews living in Witten belong to the Jewish community of Greater Dortmund .

history

The first Jewish resident of Witten, Abraham Abraham , a butcher , has been documented since 1815 .

In 1854 three synagogue communities were established : Bochum , Hattingen and Witten. They were organized as a corporation under public law , which gave them a certain organizational security. The community elected so-called representatives from among its members, who set and controlled the community budget.

Since 1860 there was a Jewish one -class primary school in Weidengasse , which was converted into a public school in 1870 . Under the influence of the teacher and cantor Jacob Ostwald , who moved to Witten in 1863 , the Witten community developed in the direction of Reform Judaism . In 1873 the city built a new school building on Nordstrasse . In 1879 an Orthodox community split off under Samuel Kahn . In 1884 the city announced the Jewish community. The Jewish elementary school has since been housed in various other schools. In 1884/85 a synagogue was built across from what was then the Real-Gymnasium . The Jewish community reached its peak around 1910 with around 500 members. Jewish religious instruction took place in the two high schools in Witten . Many of the shops on Bahnhofstrasse - Witten's main shopping street - belonged to Jewish owners.

In Nazi Germany , the Jewish residents were robbed of their property by the state and their non-Jewish fellow citizens. By 1939, the majority of Witten's Jewish population had moved to other German cities or abroad. From 1942, the remaining people were deported to ghettos , concentration camps or extermination camps via Dortmund . The vast majority of the deportees died in the Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps . The synagogue and two of the four Jewish cemeteries (today's urban area including Herbede ) were destroyed.

In Herbede, the number of members of the Jewish community rose continuously from 15 to its maximum of 87 between 1818 and 1895. From 1895 the number of members declined sharply until the end of the 1920s when the community fell apart because it lacked both the personnel and the financial base. By 1933 at the latest, there had been no proper synagogue congregation in Herbede. In 1942 and 1943 the remaining Jews from Herede were deported. Few Jews returned to Herbede after 1945.

Today there is no longer a separate Jewish community in Witten. The approx. 100 (as of 2012) Jews living in Witten belong to the Jewish community of Greater Dortmund , but some also attend events and services in the communities in Bochum and Hagen .

synagogue

Synagogue memorial
Street sign Synagogue
Street in Hebrew

Since 1848, Jewish services have been held in rented rooms in Weidengasse in Witten . In 1860 the Jewish community bought the building. The prayer room soon became too small for the rapidly growing congregation . After the Jewish school had been converted into a public elementary school in accordance with an agreement with the magistrate in 1870, the city built a building on Nordstrasse for the Jewish community in the early 1870s . In 1884 the city terminated the lease with the Jewish community. In 1884 the community then acquired a site opposite the Real-Gymnasium (today Ruhr-Gymnasium ) and built its synagogue there in 1884/85.

On the night of November 9th to 10th, 1938, the synagogue was devastated and set on fire. The fire rubble was blown up during World War II and a fire pond was created on the site .

The property was awarded to the Jewish Trust Corporation in the early 1950s , which sold it to a Witten building contractor in 1955, as only a few Jews who had survived the Holocaust had returned to Witten.

In 1979 the city of Witten renamed the Kurz Strasse , where the synagogue was located, to Synagogenstrasse . In 1994, the city in memory of the Jewish community and its synagogue by Wolfgang Schmidt -designed memorial on. It consists of two steel plates arranged at right angles with Hebrew and German inscriptions. ( Location )

"Aryanization"

Bahnhofstrasse 1930,
Alsberg & Blank on the left
Indicia Alsberg & Blank
Full-page newspaper advertisement in the Wittener Tageblatt of November 14, 1938, announcing the reopening of Neumann & Cropp

During the time of National Socialism were like in Germany in Witten Jewish business owners and property owners as part of the so-called. " Aryanization " first pushed their shops , companies and property below value to sell and - if they did not sell - expropriated later. 14 “business plans” from the years 1933 to 1938 and 53 “property plans” from 1933 to 1943 are documented in Witten. There was also a not exactly manageable number of business liquidations . The furniture of Jews was also expropriated after emigration, forced detention in Jewish houses or deportation. Some of them auctioned in front of the house. The textile merchant Ludwig Rosenbaum (Bahnhofstrasse) committed suicide in 1935 after reprisals and threats by the SA for allegedly possessing a pistol. His wife Elli nee. Marcus and his son Fritz converted to Catholicism , Fritz Rosenbaum entered the Franciscan order as brother Wolfgang and was murdered in Auschwitz on September 30, 1942 .

Examples of "Aryanization" are the textile - Department Store Alsberg & Blank on the corner Bahnhofstrasse / Well Road (now Galeria Kaufhof ), the 1938 at the Siegen entrepreneur Otto Neumann and Dr. Cropp was sold, the shoe store Rosenberg, acquired by Gregor Boecker in 1937 , (today Klauser ) and the Villa Eichengrün in Husemannstrasse, which fell to the NSDAP in 1939 and was used as a Gaufrauenschaftsschule .

graveyards

In today's urban area of ​​Witten there were five Jewish cemeteries , three of which were leveled during the National Socialist era and two are still in existence but are officially closed.

Memorial stone for the Jewish cemetery on the Helenenberg

The oldest Jewish cemetery was on the Helenenberg and was officially opened in 1867, but closed again in 1900 because it could no longer be expanded. It was leveled by the National Socialists . Today there is a memorial stone on the site . Some of the tombstones were put up again in the cemetery in Witten-Mitte . ( Location )

In 1893, the Ledderken Jewish cemetery , which still exists today, was opened in Witten-Mitte. By 1941, 209 people were buried on the approximately 1720 m² site. Today there are about 130 tombstones in the cemetery . In the back there are some newer graves, the most recent from 1989 (as of September 2012). In 1993 a memorial stone was erected in the cemetery listing all the concentration camps known at the time in which Jews from Witten were put to death. The cemetery is owned by the regional association of the Jewish communities of Westphalia-Lippe and is registered as a monument in the city's list of monuments . ( Location )

Memorial stones for the second Jewish cemetery in Annen

The first Jewish cemetery in Annen existed from 1876 on the first communal cemetery in Annens, established in 1865, on Stockumer Strasse (then Bahnhofstrasse ). Due to a lack of space, the old cemetery was replaced in 1884 by a new municipal cemetery on today's Diesterwegstrasse . The old municipal cemetery and thus also the first Jewish cemetery was built over by the Annen cast steelworks before the Second World War .

The second Jewish cemetery in Annen was established in 1898 at the Annen municipal cemetery on today's Diesterwegstrasse . In 1938 it was leveled and used for the burial of forced laborers , u. a. from the Annener Gußstahlwerk subcamp . Two memorial stones have been commemorating the Jewish cemetery since 1993. ( Location )

Jewish cemetery in Herbede
Forced labor memorial from 1946 with an inscription in Russian on the Jewish cemetery in Herbede

The Jewish cemetery in Herbede has existed since 1886. From 1944 to 1945, 22 Russian slave laborers were buried there. In 1946, at the instigation of the 7 Russian War Graves Commission, a memorial stone for the forced laborers was erected in Russian . The cemetery is also owned by the State Association of the Jewish Communities of Westphalia-Lippe and is listed as an architectural monument in the city's list of monuments. ( Location )

Street names

  • Synagogenstrasse (formerly Kleines Strasse ), January 30, 1979
  • Rebecca-Hanf-Strasse , April 22, 1996
  • Rosi-Wolfstein-Strasse , April 22, 1996
  • Rosa-Stern-Weg , 4th June 2007
  • Rosenthalring , 2010

Stumbling blocks

In April 2014, 18 stumbling blocks were laid in Witten for the first time .

See also

literature

  • Martina Kliner-Lintzen, Siegfried Pape: "... you can't forget that". Witten Jews under National Socialism . Ed .: City of Witten. 1st edition. Publishing house Dr. Dieter Winkler, Bochum 1991, ISBN 3-924517-44-4 .
  • Hans-Christian Dahlmann: "Aryanization" and society in Witten. How the population of a city in the Ruhr area took over the property of its Jews . 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-5662-5 ( reviews and excerpts, partly as audio files ( memento of October 6, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on September 14, 2019]).
  • Frank Ahland: Witten Jews in the Empire . In: Jan-Pieter Barbian (Hrsg.): Jews in the Ruhr area . 1st edition. Klartext Verlag, Essen 1999, ISBN 3-88474-694-4 , p. 327–353 ( abridged version ( Memento of June 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on February 12, 2013]).
  • Frank Ahland: "... far away from anti-Semitism, although not far from coal dust." Problems of the integration of the Witten Jews in the German Empire . In: VOHM (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the association for local and local history in the county of Mark zu Witten . 1st edition. tape 100 , 2000 ( excerpt ( memento from January 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed December 27, 2012]).
  • Martina Kliner-Lintzen: Determination and evaluation of the information about Jewish citizens in Witten . In: Karl Teppe (Hrsg.): Westphalian research . No. 39 . Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 1989 (lecture on the conference “Jewish Life in Westphalia” on November 30, 1988).
  • Diethard Aschoff: The Jews in Grafschaft Mark between the Black Death and the Reformation . In: VOHM (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the association for local and local history in the county of Mark zu Witten . 1st edition. tape 88 , 1990, pp. 63-84 .
  • Jürgen Därmann, Axel Scheibe: “Our village is free of Jews.” The history of the Jewish community in Herbede in the 20th century . In: VOHM (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the association for local and local history in the county of Mark zu Witten . 1st edition. tape 87 , 1989, pp. 167-212 .
  • Diethard Aschoff: Jews in Westphalia . In: VOHM (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the association for local and local history in the county of Mark zu Witten . 1st edition. tape 87 , 1989, pp. 213-228 .
  • Karl Maser: The Jews of the Free and Imperial City of Dortmund and the County of Mark . In: VOHM (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the association for local and local history in the county of Mark zu Witten . 1st edition. tape 26 , 1912.
  • City of Witten (ed.): "To get rid of ridicule and scorn from the people of Witten ...". Memories of the Jewish teacher and cantor Jacob Ostwald, 1863–1910 . 1st edition. City of Witten, Witten 1994.
  • Heinrich Schoppmeyer : Witten. History of the village, town and suburbs . VOHM, Witten 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-040266-1 (2 volumes).
  • Anne M. Hadem: Over and over again there are crucial tests and the attempt to survive by writing . Haag + Herchen, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-89846-664-6 .
  • Martina Kliner-Fruck, Wilfried Reininghaus : Witten, Annen, Herbede . Editor Burkhard Beyer, Wilfried Reininghaus and Rita Schlautmann-Overmeyer. In: Frank Göttmann (ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Westphalia and Lippe . The localities and territories in today's administrative district Arnsberg, new series (=  publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia ). tape 4 , no. 12 . Ardey-Verlag, Münster 2016, ISBN 978-3-87023-284-9 , pp. 813–836 ( information from the publisher [accessed August 20, 2017]).

Exhibitions

  • Witten City Archives : Jewish Life in Witten
  • Stadtarchiv Witten: “Whoever contributes to oblivion completes the work of the murderer” (Elie Wiesel). Jews from Witten in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. An exhibition with life sketches, documents and memories. Originally called - the city's history complement to the exhibition of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation / Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen designed "Jewish prisoners in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp 1936-1945"; large-sized panels with reproduced Archival and 18 living sketches of Wittener Jews in the time Nazi in the Sachsenhausen were abducted
  • Jörg Fruck: "I cry about it, and my eyes run with tears" . 21-minute audiovisual show.

Web links

Commons : Judaism in Witten  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Claudia Scholz: "Circumcision does not traumatize". WAZ , September 25, 2012, accessed December 1, 2016 .
  2. ^ A b c Paul Brandenburg, Karl-Heinz Hildebrand: Witten. Streets, paths, squares . With a contribution to the history of Witten settlement by Heinrich Schoppmeyer (=  contributions to the history of the city of Witten . Volume 1 ). VOHM , Witten 1989, ISBN 3-920611-13-6 ( street directory ( Memento from May 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed December 27, 2012]).
  3. ^ Wolfgang Schmidt: Synagogue memorial . In: City magazine Witten . No. 58 . correctum Verlag, November 2008 ( online [accessed on March 22, 2017]).
  4. ^ A b Hans-Christian Dahlmann: "Aryanization" and society in Witten. How the population of a city in the Ruhr area took over the property of its Jews . 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag , Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-5662-5 ( reviews and excerpts, partly as audio files ( memento of October 6, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on September 14, 2019]).
  5. A forgotten martyr: Brother Wolfgang Rosenbaum, OFM. In: imagined-thought. Catholic in the Ruhr area. September 29, 2012, accessed March 22, 2017 .
  6. a b c Martina Kliner-Fruck: Friedhöfe. Places of city history. A small excursus on cemetery and funeral services in Witten . In: Cemeteries in Witten . Prowiss-Verlag, Gladbeck 2005, p. 20-26 .
  7. Witten. In: Jewish cemeteries in Germany. December 2002, accessed March 22, 2017 .
  8. Jewish cemetery, Ledderken. City of Witten, accessed on March 22, 2017 .
  9. Stone is supposed to remember the victims of the Holocaust. Memorial hour at the Ledderken cemetery . In: WAZ . March 15, 1993.
  10. Jürgen Dodt, Wilhelm Fisse, Karl-Gustav Sprave, Gabriele Schnurr: Annen. From a farming village to an industrial location. 12th century until incorporation in 1929 . Ed .: History Association Witten-Annen. 1st edition. History Association Witten-Annen, Witten 2010, p. 55–56 (without ISBN).
  11. Annen. In: Jewish cemeteries in Germany. December 2002, accessed March 22, 2017 .
  12. Herbede. In: Jewish cemeteries in Germany. December 2002, accessed March 22, 2012 .
  13. Klaus Völkel: "22 comrades are resting here, tortured to death ...". Commemorative publication for the victims of forced labor in Witten, 1941–1945 . Ed .: City of Witten. 1st edition. Publishing house Dr. Dieter Winkler, Bochum 1992, ISBN 3-924517-64-9 ( description and table of contents [accessed on March 22, 2017]).
  14. ^ A b c Paul Brandenburg, Karl-Heinz Hildebrand: Witten. Streets, paths, squares. Additions February 1989 – October 2008 (=  contributions to the history of the city of Witten . Volume 5 ). VOHM , Witten 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-026475-7 .
  15. Bernd Kassner: Local politics. Dispute over street names. Rosenthalring or Krumstück? In: WAZ. February 10, 2010, accessed December 1, 2016 .
  16. Working group of the EN archives (ed.): Archivverführer. Archives in the Ennepe-Ruhr district . 1st edition. 2008.
  17. Deborah Schmidt: Witten. Memory of a dark day. WAZ, November 5, 2008, accessed December 1, 2016 .