Westheim (Hammelburg)

Westheim City of Hammelburg
	Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 40 ″ N , 9 ° 56 ′ 3 ″ E
Residents :	744
Incorporation :	1st January 1971
Postal code :	97762
Area code :	09732
Location of Westheim in Bavaria

Westheim is a district of Hammelburg in the Lower Franconian district of Bad Kissingen .

Geographical location

Westheim is east of Hammelburg and in the immediate vicinity of Langendorf , a district of Elfershausen.

The A 7 runs east of Westheim in a north-south direction .

The KG 12 running through Westheim leads west to Hammelburg. The KG 37 leads in a north-easterly direction to Elfershausen and in a south-east direction, passing Langendorf, joins the B 287 , which passes Windheim south-west of Westheim in a north-east-south-west direction.

history

The first known documentary mention took place around the year 700. As early as the 8th century, the place changed hands several times. During this time the prince-bishops of Würzburg and the abbots of Fulda struggled for ownership. In 1234 Westheim was sold to the Würzburg Monastery. The tensions over ownership were resolved in 1508, when Fulda and Würzburg each divided half of the town.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the Jewish community of Westheim was established, which was under the protection of the Lords of Erthal. The local synagogue was built in 1768; services were held here until the end of 1936. The Jewish deceased in the cemetery were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Pfaffenhausen .

In the course of the November pogroms of 1938 on November 10, 1938 in Westheim there were severe violent riots by SA storm groups from outside and the synagogue was desecrated with partial destruction of the interior. Men from the SA storm in Hammelburg and Bad Kissingen drove to Westheim in a truck at around 1 p.m. on November 10, 1938, in order to carry out Goebbels' pogrom.

The Jewish families who were still living there had been warned about the pogrom events that had occurred in Hammelburg early that morning. The Westheim Jews locked their courtyard gates and front doors. The foreign pogrom thugs broke into the Jewish courtyards and houses with brute force and barbarously smashed and devastated the interior. Then the local Jewish men were herded onto the SA truck and taken to the Hammelburg local court prison.

In March 1939, after a change of ownership, the Westheim synagogue was converted into a timber warehouse. Today the former Jewish house of God is a private house. The rococo Torah shrine of the synagogue built in 1768 survived the violent actions of the SA on November 10, 1938 and can be seen today in the Main Franconian Museum in Würzburg. The 26-year-old SA Storm Leader Karl Hartmann, who was responsible for the pogroms in the Hammelburg district, was born in 1911 in the Hammelburg camp, died in the Russian War in 1941 and was able to prosecute all Jewish crimes after 1945 for his serious crimes, which he committed on 10 November 1938 Municipalities of the Hammelburg district executed and carried out by hand themselves, will not be held responsible.

As part of the municipal reform , Westheim became a district of Hammelburg on January 1, 1971.

literature

Michael Mott : Fuldaer-Würzburger Geleitstein from 1615 (near Westheim), "Buchenblätter" Fuldaer Zeitung , 58th year, No. 22, October 10, 1985, p. 87.
Hammelburg Chamber of Justice; Files from men of the SA Storm Hammelburg, State Archives Würzburg.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Wilhelm Volkert (ed.): Handbook of Bavarian offices, communities and courts 1799–1980 . CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-09669-7 , p. 478 .

[1] Wilhelm Volkert (ed.): Handbook of Bavarian offices, communities and courts 1799–1980 . CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-09669-7 , p. 478 .