Synagogue (Ottweiler)

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Former location of the synagogue. The floor plans of the synagogue are set into the ground with red plaster

The Ottweiler synagogue was built in Ottweiler ( Neunkirchen district ) in the courtyard (Pauluseck 11) in 1840 . The synagogue was almost completely destroyed during the November pogroms in 1938 . The ruin was acquired by the city of Ottweiler and demolished in 1962. Today there is a residential and commercial building at this point.

synagogue

Information board on the building that today stands on the site of the synagogue
Model of the synagogue and the Jewish elementary school

There was probably a bed hall in Ottweiler at Sammetgasse 3 as early as the 18th century. The building is still standing today. In 1803 members of the Jewish community bought the no longer used office building of the Oberamt Ottweiler at the castle courtyard. This was converted into a synagogue. Due to the increased number of parishioners up to 1840, the old synagogue had become too small. For this reason, the old synagogue was torn down and a new, larger synagogue was built on the property. The inauguration took place in the summer of 1840. The synagogue was destroyed in the November pogroms in 1938. The action took place under the direction of SS-Obersturmbannführer Stemmler and the district leader of the NSDAP Schäfer. For fear that a fire could spread to the neighboring buildings, the synagogue was not set on fire. The synagogue's inventory was smashed and burned in the castle courtyard. The windows and the roof were also destroyed. The site was later bought by the city. The ruins of the synagogue were demolished in 1962 to make more space in the courtyard. A residential and commercial building was built on part of the original synagogue site in 1990, with a plaque in memory of the former synagogue. In 1988, a memorial in memory of the Jewish victims of National Socialism and the synagogue was inaugurated in Fornarohof, near the location of the former synagogue . The inscription reads:

In memory of the Jewish house of God
Germans blinded by racial madness desecrated it in 1938.
The destruction of the synagogues was followed by the murder of the Jewish people.
Remembering brings redemption.
Ousting stops redemption

In 2018, the city council decided to recreate the outlines of the foundation walls of the synagogue in the non-built-up area of ​​the castle courtyard with red granite paving. In the same year, a detailed model of the synagogue and the adjacent building in which the Jewish elementary school, which existed until 1918, was erected in the courtyard (courtyard 4).

Jewish community of Ottweiler

Memorial stone to the November pogroms 1938

Jews are first mentioned in Ottweiler around 1723. Under pressure from the merchants of the Saarbrücken and St. Johann regional offices, Prince Ludwig expelled the Jewish residents from the two regional offices. At the same time he issued a settlement ban for Jews within two hours of walking around the two places. Ludwig instructed the evacuated Jews to settle in the towns of Ottweiler and Neunkirchen belonging to the Ottweiler Oberamt . At that time these belonged to the County of Saarbrücken and Ludwig could continue to benefit from the Judenregal , even if this led to conflicts between him and the citizens of the Oberamt Ottweiler in the following years. Since the Oberamt Saarbrücken and St. Johann belonged to the Rabbinate District Illingen just like the Oberamt Ottweiler , settlement in Ottweiler was an option for the evacuated Jews. This explains the sharp increase in the number of Jewish residents from 1776 onwards. In addition, many Jewish residents from Illingen moved from Illingen to Ottweiler due to the high personal customs duties. Between 1825 and 1918, the community had an elementary school, which was housed in the building adjacent to the synagogue. The religion teacher acted as a prayer leader and schochet at the same time . The dead of the Jewish community were buried in the Illingen Jewish cemetery until 1842 . From 1842 the community had its own cemetery . In the course of industrialization, emigration to larger cities began in the second half of the 19th century. After the referendum in 1935 and the associated annexation of the Saar area to the German Reich , almost half of the Jewish population emigrated. During the November pogroms in 1938, the majority of the male community members were arrested and transferred to the prison in Saarbrücken. Some of the younger prisoners were deported from there directly to the Dachau concentration camp . The last 13 Jewish residents were deported to the Gurs internment camp in October 1940 . After the war, preliminary investigations were initiated by the public prosecutor at the Saarbrücken regional court against 23 people involved in the November pogroms. 12 people were acquitted. The two main responsible, Stemmler and Schäfer, could no longer be called to account. At this point in time, Stemmler had already been sentenced to death and executed in the aviation trials and Schäfer had died in the meantime.

In the memorial book - Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny 1933–1945 and in the Central Database of the Names of the Holocaust Victims of Yad Vashem 33 members of the Jewish community Ottweiler (who were born there or lived temporarily) are listed who were born there during the time of National Socialism were murdered.

Development of the Jewish population

year Jews Jewish families
1767 11
1796 10
1808 86
1822 120
1833 155
1843 170
around 1850 160
1895 55
1910 48
1926 51
1933 60
1940 17th

Source: alemannia-judaica.de; jewische-gemeinden.de

literature

  • Albert Marx: The history of the Jews in Saarland. From the Ancien Régime to the Second World War. Die Mitte, Saarbrücken 1992, ISBN 978-3921236673 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ottweiler (Neunkirchen district) Jewish history / prayer hall / synagogue . alemannia-judaica.de. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c Ottweiler (Saarland) . jewische-gemeinden.de. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
  3. ^ Memories of Jewish life . saarbruecker-zeitung.de. August 9, 2018. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
  4. ↑ 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. 55-65. ( online )
  5. ↑ Klaus Zimmer: "You are next in line". Shootings of airmen in the Saarbrücken area. . flugzeugabstuerze-saarland.de. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
  6. ^ Hans-Joachim Hoffmann: What happened on November 9, 1938 in Ottweiler? . ottweiler-direkt.de. November 8, 2013. Accessed December 23, 2019.
  7. ↑ List of names of the online version of the memorial book for the victims of the Nazi persecution of Jews at: www.bundesarchiv.de, accessed on December 22, 2019
  8. ↑ Yad Vashem - Central Database of the Names of the Holocaust Victims On: yvng.yadvashem.org, accessed on December 22, 2019