Synagogue (Bad Hersfeld)

View of the south side of the synagogue in Bad Hersfeld (around 1920)

Synagogue (left) and the schoolhouse built two years later for the Jewish elementary school and the mikveh, which have existed since 1877/78

The synagogue in Bad Hersfeld , the district town of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse , was built in 1895/96 and destroyed in the November pogrom in 1938 . The synagogue was on what was then Kaiserstraße (today Dudenstraße) at the corner of Vogelgesang (at today's house number Vogelgesang 3).

description

There were three high arched windows on the south side of the synagogue . Next to the large portal was the door to the stairway to the women's gallery . The women's gallery was lit with daylight by two small arched windows.

The porch on the east side of the synagogue contained the Torah shrine with the Torah scrolls inside .

history

In November 1924 the synagogue was broken into and the ritual objects were desecrated. The perpetrators were caught and sentenced to several months in prison.

On the evening of November 8, 1938 , rioting National Socialists marched through Bad Hersfeld and abused Jewish citizens. The windows of their homes and shops were broken. The windows of the Jewish school were also thrown in, the interior fittings and the mikveh (ritual bath) were completely destroyed. The synagogue was set on fire and burned down to the outer walls. The fire brigade only protected the neighboring houses.

Commemoration

The synagogue site was rebuilt in the post-war period. A memorial to the memory of the synagogue is located opposite the synagogue site on the city wall.

literature

Klaus-Dieter Alicke: Lexicon of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area. Volume 1: Aach - Groß-Bieberau. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-08077-2 ( online edition ).