Jews in Kirchberg
Jews in Kirchberg , a town in the Hunsrück , existed until the end of the 1930s. A verifiable synagogue community existed around the 18th century and until around 1938/39.
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prehistory
The first mentions of Jews in Kirchberg are in 1287 (four Jews were slain in a pogrom) and in the Sponheim regesta of the early 14th century. They are related to monetary transactions and the associated pledging of lands and the associated taxes of the counts. Such financial transactions were only possible for Jews because of the interest prohibition . In the autumn of 1337, in the course of the pogroms against the Jews after the rise of the legend of the allegedly desecrated Werner von Oberwesel , Count Walram took advantage of the mood and had all Trier Jews in Kirchberg, and thus his creditors, killed. His own Sponheim Jews were spared, but had to leave Kirchberg. From then on the sources are silent.
Modern times
With its function as a residence and market place, Kirchberg was ideal for the Jews who were mostly cattle traders and who were organized in the rural Jews . Especially after the introduction of religious freedom and the separation of state and church in the French period , the number of Jewish residents in Kirchberg increased. In 1820: 58, in 1856: 96 and despite the emigration of around 50 people in the second half of the 19th century in 1903: 80 and, as the high point in 1926, with 95 Jewish residents again. In 1933, 67 Jewish residents were still living in the city.
The list of the Kirchberg list drawn up on the basis of the Napoleonic naming decree of 1808 includes nine families with 45 family members, five of whom were cattle dealers alone. Even the rabbi Amschel Kahn , now with name Anselme 's and as a teacher is called, is listed with his wife and three children. In all probability his son Joseph succeeded his father and later became known as the rabbi in Rhaunen and, in 1880, as the father of the American architect Albert Kahn .
After immigration to the cities in the second half of the 18th century in addition to emigration overseas, this trend intensified in the 1930s due to the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich , at that time 46 emigrated to the larger cities, including them 31 to Cologne alone and 15 to the USA. In addition to the shops of Jewish owners, the Kirchberg cattle markets were also controlled by the SA ; they should also be free of Jews . But that sealed the end of the cattle markets. In 1938 all Jews are said to have left Kirchberg. Probably the last Jew, the farmer Julius Hirsch, was tracked down from his hiding place in his barn on the night of the pogrom in 1938 and driven onto the market square with pitchforks. Seriously injured, he was able to flee to Julius Wullenweber's bakery, who hid him and where he received medical help. Of the former Kirchberg Jews, around 70 were victims of the Shoah between 1942 and 1945 .
synagogue
In 1817 the Jewish community built a synagogue or bought a house to convert it into a synagogue in what was then Affengasse, today's Glöcknergasse. On the first floor there were classrooms and a small teacher's apartment, the prayer room was upstairs. By 1856, however, the building fabric had become so bad that a new synagogue had to be built. Due to lack of funds in the small community, the new building on the foundations of the previous building could not begin until 1883. The building had two arched windows on each side and was built on the old foundations. In 1938 the building was set on fire, but worried residents could extinguish it, only the cult objects were burned in the open street. The construction was then transferred to the city, which claimed the costs for the care of Jewish community members and paid nothing. Then the building was used as a pub for the Hitler Youth , as a prisoner of war camp and after 1959, bought by the music association for 4,000 DM, as a practice room. In 1970 the property was sold to the neighbor who demolished the building in 1972.
A mikveh existed as other places of worship and, from at least 1830, a Jewish cemetery on Metzenhausener Strasse , which was used until 1937.
Commemoration
In Kirchberg, too, the history of the Jewish fellow citizens was dealt with late, so there are no references to their fate in the publications for the 700th anniversary of the city. It was not until November 1998 that the city erected a memorial stone for the murdered Jews from the city on the market square in front of the tourist information. The official city guide from 2010 has a picture of the stone on page 8. The series of publications on the history of the city of Kirchberg, in volume 2 from 2000, is the first to publish a monograph and documentation on the history of the Jews in Kirchberg.
In 1981 the German feature film "Raindrop" was shot in Kirchberg. The autobiographical film by the Kirchberg-born author and actor Harry Raymon tells a story of Jewish children during fascism in Germany. The roles were u. a. with the actors Elfriede Irrall , Walter Renneisen , Giovanni Früh , and Pit Krüger . “Raindrops” was Film of the Month for June 1982 by the Protestant Film Work jury.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kirchberg at jewische-gemeinden.de
- ↑ Hans-Werner Johann: Jews in Kirchberg , in Heimathaus Kirchberg, history to touch , undated, p. 16
- ↑ Manfred Stoffel (editor): Reconciliation needs memory, Jews in Kirchberg, documentation from the collection of Ernst Fuchß , Kirchberg 2000, p. 20
- ↑ HW Johann: The name change of the Jews in 1808 in the area of today's Verbandsgemeinde Kirchberg , Laufersweiler 1991
- ↑ Kirchberg on alemannia-judaica.de
- ↑ Christof Pies (among others): Jewish life in the Rhein-Hunsrück district , Hunsrücker Geschichtsverein e. V. (Ed.) Volume 40, Argenthal 2004, p. 200
- ↑ Heimathaus
- ↑ Pies, p. 200
- ↑ Kirchberg at Alemannia Judaica
- ↑ Picture in the city guide ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) 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.
- ^ "Raindrops" on the website of the Filmkulturelles Zentrum, a department in the joint venture of Evangelische Publizistik gGmbH (GEP)
