Synagogue (Merzig)

Interior view of the Merzig synagogue around 1923

The Merzig synagogue was built in 1842. It stood on the corner of Rehstrasse (today's Synagogenstrasse) and Neustrasse. During the November pogroms in 1938 , the synagogue was set on fire and destroyed. The ruin was demolished in 1940/41. Today a memorial for the synagogue is located here.

history

There was a prayer room before 1729. A judgment of December 5, 1729 suggests this. Three members of the Jewish community are sentenced to fines for the unauthorized construction of a synagogue, and the demolition of the synagogue and the confiscation of the inventory are ordered. After this point in time, probably around 1780, a prayer room was set up on the upper floor of a building in today's Querstraße 5 to 7. In 1838, as the existing prayer room was no longer sufficient, planning for the construction of a new synagogue began. This was built between 1841 and 1842 and inaugurated in July 1842. Between 1921 and 1922 the synagogue was renovated and modernized. The painter Max Lazarus took on the redesign of both the synagogue's windows and the ceiling and wall paintings. During the November pogroms in 1938 the synagogue was set on fire and destroyed. In 1940/41 the remains were torn down and a barrack with a kindergarten for the NSDAP was built on it. In 1961 a memorial plaque was placed on the place where the synagogue stood. The inscription reads:

This is where the venerable church of the Merzig Israelite community, damaged in November 1938 and destroyed in November 1944, stood

Since this did not correspond to the historical facts, the following addition was made on the back in 2005:

The synagogue was destroyed in the pogrom night in November 1938 and the ruins were later torn down. The cantor's house was bombed in November 1944.

In 1975 the synagogue memorial was redesigned. In connection with this measure, the city council decided to rename Rehstrasse to Synagogenstrasse.

Jewish community of Merzig

The first indications that Jews lived in Merzig go back to the first third of the 14th century. In 1740 a Jewish cemetery was laid out on which, in addition to the members of the Merzig Jewish community, the deceased from the Jewish branch communities of Brotdorf and Hilhaben were buried. From 1823 the community also had a school in which the teacher's apartment was located. The number of members of the Jewish community residing in Merzig rose steadily until the end of the 19th century. From that point on, the number decreased. After the referendum in 1935 and the associated annexation of the Saar area to the German Reich , most of the Jewish residents emigrated. Due to the fact that the congregation only had 16 members in 1936, it lost the congestion as an independent synagogue congregation. The last Jewish residents were deported to the Camp de Gurs internment camp in October 1940 .

The number of during the time of National Socialism killed members of the Jewish community who were born in Merzig or lived there fixed or temporary, can not be quantified precisely. The central database of the names of the Holocaust victims Yad Vashem and the memorial book Victims of the Persecution of Jews under National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933–1945 provide different results.

Development of the Jewish population

year	Jews	Jewish families
circa 1700		5
1731		8th
1768		5
1782		12
1808	83
1816	131
1833	138
1843	182
1846	223
1849	328
1885	223
circa 1900	280
1920	235
1930	204
1936	16
1938	14th
Late 1940	0
↑ a b Including the subsidiary communities of Brotdorf and Hilringen

Source: The synagogue communities in the Merzig district

literature

• Cilli Kasper-Holtkatte: Jews on the move. On the social history of a minority in the Saar-Mosel area around 1800. In: Helmut Castritius (Ed.), Alfred Haverkamp (Ed.), Franz Irsigler (Ed.), Stefi Jersch-Wenzel (Ed.): Research on the history of the Jews (= Research on the history of the Jews. Volume 3). Hahnsche Buchhandlung Verlag, Hanover 1996, ISBN 978-3775256124 , pp. 32-44. ( Digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fubt.opus.hbz-nrw.de%2Fopus45-ubtr%2Ffrontdoor%2Fdeliver%2Findex%2FdocId%2F778%2Ffile%2FFGJA3_GB3Dpdf .Holt IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D )
• Hans Peter Klauck: Jewish life in the Merzig-Wadern district 1650–1940. In: Communications from the Association for Local Studies in the District of Saarlouis eV (= communications from the Association for Local Studies in the District of Saarlouis eV Volume 25). Association for local studies in the district of Saarlouis eV, 2019, ISBN 978-3933926784 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ALFRED DIWERSY: Jews and Christians lived together in harmony . Saarbrücker Zeitung. June 27, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Merzig (district town, Merzig-Wadern district) Jewish history / synagogue . Alemannia Judaica. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
3. ↑ ^{a b} municipalities (alphabetically): Merzig (Saarland) . jewische-gemeinden.de. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Wilhelm Laubenthal : The synagogue communities of the Merzig district. Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag, 1984, ISBN 978-3921646731 .
5. ↑ Commemorative Book Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933–1945 . Federal Archives. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
6. ^ Central database of the names of Holocaust victims . Yad Vashem - International Holocaust Memorial. Retrieved November 25, 2019.