Synagogue (Meudt)

The synagogue in Meudt , a local community in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate , was a synagogue that was built in 1880/81 and destroyed during the November pogroms in 1938 . The synagogue was at Kirchstrasse 23.

history

The Jewish community of Meudt acquired a building at Kirchstrasse 15 in 1835, which was converted into a synagogue. Since it burned down in 1879, a new synagogue was built in 1880/81, which was inaugurated on August 5, 1881.

architecture

The facade of the free-standing brick building was divided into three floors by toothed friezes , also known as the German band . The corner towers with narrow windows were covered by polygonal dome roofs . In the corner towers there were simpler portals , these were the entrances to the women's galleries , while the higher central portal, the men's entrance, was flanked by columns on which the archivolt rested. A three-pass with the tablets of the law was embedded in the gable above this portal . Above it was a large circular window and a narrow window was inserted in the gable. The eaves sides were divided by two buttresses and provided with coupled windows.

time of the nationalsocialism

On November 10, 1938 , the synagogue was desecrated and burned down by SS or SA men from Westerburg . The four Torah scrolls were saved in time by the brothers Ludwig and Kurt Falkenstein.

On September 2, 1942, 14 people from Meudt were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Five of them died in the ghetto by 1944, another five were transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp and four came to Maly Trostinec near Minsk on September 29, 1942 with the transport "Bs".

Commemoration

Monument in memory of the synagogue in Meudt

In 1988 a memorial stone with a picture of the synagogue, the tablets of the law and the menorah was erected. The inscription reads: In memory of the synagogue of the Jewish community of Meudt, built in 1880/81. It was destroyed on November 9, 1938 by foreign supporters of the rulers at the time. Meudt, on November 9, 1988 . In Hebrew and German it follows: They set fire to your sanctuary, desecrated the abode of your name on the ground. Psalm 74.7.

literature

Stefan Assmann: Meudt . In: Joachim Jösch, Uli Jungbluth u. a. (Ed.): Jews in the Westerwald. Life, suffering and remembrance. A guide to the search for clues . Montabaur 1998, pp. 196-200 ( ZDB -ID 2288365-4 ).
"... and this is the gate of heaven". Synagogues in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland . Edited by Stefan Fischbach u. a., ed. from the State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate u. a., Mainz 2005, pp. 271-272, ISBN 3-8053-3313-7 (Memorial Book of Synagogues in Germany, Vol. 2).