Jewish community Kempten (Allgäu)
A first Jewish community or settlement of Jews in Kempten can be documented for the 14th century. In 1875 the Kempten community merged with that from Memmingen at the urging of the Swabian government. This government request had been expressed since 1872. After the persecution of the Jews during the Nazi era , a small number of Jews founded a new Jewish community, which however went out again shortly afterwards.
history
Individual Jews lived in Kempten as early as the Middle Ages. There is evidence of Jewish residents in the second half of the 14th century. In 1373, Charles IV gave the city the right to protect Jews for six years, along with many other rights . In 1401 not a single Jew lived in the city. A few years later, in 1409, a Jew named Lazarus was accepted as a citizen. Also in 1414 there were Jews in the city. However, since 1561 the settlement of Jews in Kempten was no longer allowed.
In 1692, Mayr Seligmann, a Jewish court factor from Ansbach , was accepted with his family for a few years in the Kempten prince monastery . Seligmann died six years later. His house was in what is now Herbststrasse, which was called "Judengasse" for a long time. Later, up to 62 Jews worked in the prince monastery.
Only in the middle of the 19th century were Jews allowed to resettle in the city. One of the first in Kempten was the battalion doctor David Ullmann, who was called in in 1856. In 1869 three bankers came to Kempten: Nathan and Hermann Ullmann from Osterberg and Moritz Löb Einstein. Since then, the number of Jews has increased thanks to immigration from Altenstadt , Fellheim and Osterberg: from 37 in 1871 with a total of 11,223 inhabitants to 72 in 1880 with a total of 13,872 inhabitants. In 1890 there were 62 Jewish residents, in 1900 68 out of a total of 18,864 inhabitants, and in 1910 91. Their integration progressed rapidly in Kempten. Sigmund Ullmann, head of the Jewish community from 1913 to 1942, was a magistrate from 1912 to 1919 and a member of the city council from 1922 to 1925 . Many of the Jewish families founded and built specialty shops and banks in the city. Stumbling blocks scattered all over the city remind of these families . In the First World War were two parishioners, but the city are listed on any of the war memorials. Shortly after the war, anti-Semitic agitation and hostility to Jews began. Jews were increasingly publicly defamed , and leaflets were distributed. On these were phrases such as " war instigators, war profiteers and slackers" .
After the seizure of power of Adolf Hitler in 1933 lived in Kempten 50 to 60 Jewish inhabitants. During the “ Jewish boycott ” in April 1933, members of the SA blocked Jewish shops and demanded their closure. There was no protest from the population. Lord Mayor Otto Merkt condemned these actions sharply in the next city council meeting. Due to anti-Semitism, some Jewish families left the city. During the November pogrom in 1938 , windows were broken, houses and apartments were searched and Jewish men were arrested. Three men were deported to the Dachau concentration camp . On May 17, 1939, 25 Jews were officially counted in Kempten. A total of 26 Jews had left the city by 1939. In 1942, 14 of the last 20 Jews were deported. At this time Jews had to live in so-called "Jewish houses" , one of which was Haus Ullmann at Immenstädter Straße 20. Ten more Jews were deported to the Lublin ghetto via Munich , five older Jews were transferred to the Theresienstadt ghetto on August 10, 1942 forced. Otto Merkt called the Gestapo in Augsburg , as he said in his judicial proceedings , and asked that the old people be spared, but was unsuccessful. Six people from Kempten, who were reasonably protected from persecution by a "mixed marriage", were able to stay in the city until February 22, 1945. Three of them were then taken to the Theresienstadt ghetto anyway.
The following people perished during the Nazi era, the date of birth in brackets:
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Only two Jewish women and eight so - called half - Jews experienced the end of the war in Kempten . In 1945 five former parishioners returned to Kempten and founded a new religious community in 1947. It consisted of displaced persons and had 54 members. After they emigrated, the community died out in 1948. It is doubted that the 54 Jews from neighboring countries to the east met regularly for worship at all.
The Holocaust was kept in silence for a long time, and it was not until the City Youth Council in 1988 that a torchlight procession made its first foray into public discussion of the subject. For the victims of the Kempten Holocaust, the regional association of Israelite religious communities erected a memorial stone in 1995. A year later, the Robert Schuman Elementary School erected a memorial for the victims of Nazi rule.
In the summer of 2001, the Kempten Regional Court decided in the so-called “Gypsy Jew” judgment that the designation “Gypsy Jew ” could not be viewed as a formal insult, an attack on human dignity or a defamatory criticism. In the grounds of the judgment, however, the designation of a person as a “Gypsy Jew” was criticized: “Nevertheless, the court regards the compound use of these terms in the designation as a“ Gypsy Jew ”, especially towards a Jewish fellow citizen [...], as hurtful and degrading and thus offensive. "
Traces of Jewish life
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Today in Kempten a memorial stone commemorates the victims of the Holocaust in Kempten and a memorial for the victims of National Socialism stands on Friedensplatz in the city park near the Zumsteinhaus . The following can be read on the memorial stone:
In memory
of the Jewish citizens of
our city who
were persecuted during
the National Socialist
rule and who were held
on 30.3. August 10,
1942 were deported to the extermination camps.
In honor of
the dead, in honor of the living,
as a reminder
Established in 1995
by the regional association of
Jewish religious communities
in Bavaria
Stumbling blocks have been embedded in the ground in Kempten since summer 2010. The square in front of the Müßiggengelzunfthaus was named after Sigmund Ullmann in 1997. It was a confidante of Merkts as well as city council. Ullmann was also head of the Kempten Jewish community.
synagogue
The Jewish community in Kempten was relatively small compared to other cities in Swabia. Services were held at times in the synagogue of the Jewish community in Memmingen . In 1875 the Kempten community rented an adjoining room in the country house . In 1936 or 1937 a sign was placed on the prayer room saying “Jews not wanted” . During the November pogrom of 1938 there were no riots against the prayer room. The ritual objects were also preserved after the then mayor Otto Merkt had bought them for the local museum and hid them in his office in the town hall . The objects of worship remained in the possession of the city until the 1980s, when they were handed over to the Augsburg synagogue .
Jewish Cemetery
On the small Jewish cemetery, which is adjacent to the Catholic cemetery , there are more memorial stones for the victims of the Nazi dictatorship. Two memorial stones at the cemetery commemorate the victims of Nazi persecution.
Concentration camp subcamps
From September 15, 1943, there was a satellite camp of the Dachau concentration camp in Kempten , in which Jews were also forcibly employed. It was initially located in the Kempten spinning and weaving mill , but was later housed in the nearby animal breeding hall (also Allgäuhalle ). Today a sign on the animal breeding hall reminds of the armaments production of aircraft parts carried out there with forced laborers.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Franz-Rasso Böck , Ralf Lienert , Joachim Weigel: JahrhundertBlicke auf Kempten 1900–2000 . Verlag Tobias Dannheimer - Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten (Allgäu) 1999, ISBN 3-88881-035-3 , p. 251 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Kempten (district town, Bavaria): Jewish history / synagogue. Alemannia Judaica, May 26, 2011, accessed April 30, 2012 .
- ↑ a b c d Jewish life in Kempten. (No longer available online.) Juedisches-schwaben-netzwerk.de, archived from the original on March 24, 2012 ; Retrieved April 30, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Gernot Römer: "If resistance, then through remark" In: Gernot Römer: There are always two possibilities. Fellow fighters, followers and opponents of Hitler using the example of Swabia. Wißner, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-89639-217-4 , p. 93ff., Here: p. 96 and p. 196.
- ↑ a b c d Franz-Rasso Böck , Ralf Lienert , Joachim Weigel: JahrhundertBlicke auf Kempten 1900–2000 . Verlag Tobias Dannheimer - Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten (Allgäu) 1999, ISBN 3-88881-035-3 , p. 252 .
- ↑ Inscriptions on the memorial stone and on the metal plate of the memorial
- ↑ Franconian Day: Freedom of expression - judge justifies “Gypsy Jews” judgment. September 15, 2001
- ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung : Court founds “Gypsy Jew judgment” September 15, 2001
- ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau: “Gypsy Jew” for judges is no attack on dignity. September 14, 2001
- ↑ Collection of press articles on the “Gypsy Jew” court ruling ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 30, 2012.
- ^ Directory of concentration camps and satellite camps, No. 726
literature
- Ralf Lienert: The history of the Jews in Kempten. Kempten (Allgäu) 1998.
- Karl Filser: On the recent history of the Jews in Kempten. In: Peter Fassl (ed.): History and culture of the Jews in Swabia. Irseer Schriften 2. Sigmaringen 1994, pp. 105-116.
- Martin Rebbe: The Jewish community in Kempten. Kempten 1991.
- Wolfgang Kraus, Berndt Hamm, Meier Schwarz (eds.): "More than stones ..." Synagogue memorial volume Bavaria. Volume I: Upper Franconia - Upper Palatinate - Lower Bavaria - Upper Bavaria - Swabia. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2007, ISBN 978-3-98870-411-3 , pp. 488–493.
- Franz-Rasso Böck , Ralf Lienert , Joachim Weigel: Century views of Kempten 1900–2000 . Verlag Tobias Dannheimer - Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten (Allgäu) 1999, ISBN 3-88881-035-3 , p. 251 f .
Web links
- Alemannia Judaica: Kempten (district town, Bavaria) - Jewish history / synagogue
- juedisches-schwaben-netzwerk.de: Jewish life in Kempten