Synagogue (Saarlouis)

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A new building erected in 1987 on the site of the former synagogue (Postgässchen 6). View of the inner courtyard between Postgässchen and Silberherzstrasse

The synagogue was built in 1928 on Silberherzstraße / Postgässchen in Saarlouis and was used by the Jewish community until 1938. During the November pogroms in 1938 , the interior was completely destroyed. The building was demolished in 1983 as part of renovation work. In 1986/87 a new building was built on this site, which is architecturally based on the old synagogue.

synagogue

Torah shrine and harmonium in the former Saarlouis synagogue
Memorial plaque to the former synagogue in Saarlouis and the Jewish victims of National Socialism

A prayer room housed in a private house was already in existence in Saarlouis around 1770. A second prayer room was added in 1802/1803. After both had become too small for the rapidly growing community, efforts were made to build a new synagogue as early as 1820. However, the planning was repeatedly delayed by tensions within the Jewish community. Ultimately, the construction of the synagogue was privately financed by six wealthy parishioners. The inauguration of the synagogue took place in 1828. The synagogue was a two-storey building with arched windows , a half-hip roof and a mikvah . In the years 1878 and 1915 the synagogue was renovated and modernized. The interior of the synagogue was destroyed during the November pogroms in 1938. Parts of the inventory were taken to the municipal building yard and either burned or left to rot. The synagogue was not set on fire. From 1938 to around 1963 the building was used as a warehouse and carpenter's workshop. Until 1983, the former synagogue of a free church served as a space for church services. The building was demolished in 1983 as part of the Silberherzstrasse renovation project . In 1986/87 a new building (Postgässchen 6) was built, which is architecturally based on the old synagogue. The entrance is in the connecting courtyard on the back, between Postgässchen and Silberherzstraße. The building houses a memorial room for the synagogue and the history of the Jews in Saarlouis on the ground floor. The memorial plaque originally attached to the former synagogue in 1979 was attached to the gable end of the new building in 1987.

Saarlouis Jewish Community

Memorial plaque to the Jewish scouts Saarlouis who were expelled or murdered between 1935 and 1945

Jews living in Saarlouis are first mentioned in 1685, just five years after the city was founded by Louis XIV . Until 1790, however, there were repeated clashes between members of the Jewish community and the Christian citizenship, which in 1710 and 1770 led to the temporary expulsion of the Jewish citizens from the city. The background to these disputes was the economic interests of the Christian citizenship. The Jewish inhabitants of Fraulautern , Lisdorf , Wadgassen , Schwalbach , Bous , Differten and Felsberg (from 1904) belonged to the Saarlouis synagogue community . The community belonged to the Trier rabbinical district . Efforts by the community to have its own rabbinate did not lead to success until the end of its existence. Until 1905 the deceased were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Diefflen . From then on, the community had its own cemetery . Between 1828 and 1875 there was a Jewish denominational school in Saarlouis. Differences of opinion about the content of the lessons and the management of the school between Orthodox and liberal members of the community led to the fact that it was closed in 1875. From this point on, the community only had one religious school. The appointed teacher also held the position of prayer leader . From 1885 an auxiliary prayer leader, who also took on the function of a shochet , was also employed. After the referendum in 1935 and the associated annexation of the Saar area to the German Reich , most of the Jewish residents emigrated. Many of them in neighboring France. The members of the Jewish community who remained in Saarlouis after the November pogroms in 1938 were deported to the Gurs internment camp in October 1940 . In August 2019, a memorial plaque was placed on the wall opposite the former synagogue by the friends and supporters of the DPSG im Saarland eV for the Jewish scouts from Saarlouis who were expelled or murdered between 1935 and 1945.

Development of the Jewish population

year Jews Jewish families
1685 3
1788 15th
1810 223
1824 240
1833 254
1853 260
1895 239
1910 307
1920 328
1927 335
1933 364
December 1935 95
May 1939 41

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

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 111 members of the Saarlouis Jewish community (who were born there or lived temporarily) are listed who were born during the time of National Socialism were murdered.

literature

  • Hans Peter Klauck: Jewish life in the city and in the district of Saarlouis 1680–1940. In: Publications of the Association for Local Studies in the Saarlouis district. (= Publications of the Association for Local Studies in the Saarlouis District . Volume 20). 2016, ISBN 978-3-933926-65-4 .
  • Werner Müller: The Jewish minority in the Saarlouis district: Political, socio-economic and cultural aspects of their living situation from the Ancien Régime to National Socialism. In: Writings of the Saarlouis district (= writings of the Saarlouis district. Volume 1). Röhrig, St. Ingbert 1993, ISBN 978-3-861100-25-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Saarlouis (district town, Saarland) Fremersdorf, Itzbach and Siersdorf . alemannia-judaica.de. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c Saarlouis (Saarland) . jewische-gemeinden.de. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  3. ^ Sophia Schülke: About the checkered history of the Jewish Saarlouiser . saarbruecker-zeitung.de. April 11, 2012. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  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. 180-188. ( online )
  5. ↑ Commemorative Book Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933–1945 . Federal Archives. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  6. ^ Central database of the names of Holocaust victims . Yad Vashem - International Holocaust Memorial. Retrieved January 4, 2020.

Coordinates: 49 ° 18 ′ 51.5 "  N , 6 ° 44 ′ 57.9"  E