Wittlich synagogue

Former synagogue on Himmeroder Strasse in Wittlich

The synagogue in Wittlich was built in 1909/10. It is located at Himmeroder Strasse 44.

history

The Jewish community in Wittlich previously used a smaller synagogue at Himmeroder Straße 8, which had become dilapidated . Therefore, according to the plans of the district builder Johannes Vienken, a new synagogue was built in the same street, which was inaugurated on November 25th and 26th, 1910 by the chief rabbi Jakob Baßfreund from Trier .

time of the nationalsocialism

During the pogrom on November 10, 1938 , the interior of the synagogue was vandalized by SA men and other people. In 1939 the town of Wittlich bought the building that was used as a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II . Around 250 Jews from Wittlich were expelled from the city; the last deportation took place in 1942. A third of the members of the Jewish community were murdered in concentration camps . After the war, none of the survivors returned, which meant that the synagogue had lost its function.

architecture

The exterior of the bulky synagogue looks almost exactly the same as it did in the year of inauguration 1910. Inside, it consists of a rectangular prayer room for the men with a narrow Torah shrine facing east and galleries for the women on three sides. Art Nouveau elements typical of the time were combined with neo-Romanesque echoes. The ornament paintings in the semicircle of the east room, where the Almemor with the Eternal Light was on a raised foundation in front of the Torah niche , are pure Art Nouveau decoration . These paintings were restored on the basis of the surviving designs and the faded remains, as were the decorative ribbons on the other components inside. The former Torah shrine was set up as a memorial in front of the building.

Commemoration

On a memorial plaque in the former Torah niche are the words in Hebrew : Think, God, of the souls of the righteous of the Wittlich community, who sacrificed their lives for the holiness of God, and in German: The Wittlich Synagogue, built in 1910, was that spiritual center of a thriving Jewish community. In memory of the victims of National Socialist persecution from Wittlich 1933 to 1945. As a warning to the living .

Todays use

After 1975 the city of Wittlich restored the former synagogue and today it is a cultural and conference center with the permanent exhibition Jewish life in Wittlich .

See also

• List of synagogues destroyed in the German Reich from 1933 to 1945

literature

• "... 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. 390–395 (Memorial Book of Synagogues in Germany, Vol. 2), ISBN 3-8053-3313-7

Web links

Commons : Synagoge Wittlich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Wittlich synagogue near Alemannia Judaica
• Information about the synagogue on the website of the Wittlich Cultural Office
• Information on the Wittlich former synagogues on the homepage of the "Jewish Community Wittlich" working group

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 '17 "  N , 6 ° 53' 8.5"  E