Sehnde

First Jewish presence: 1820s; peak Jewish population: 19 in 1885; Jewish population in 1933: 11

This tiny community of Jewish traders, butchers and merchants was affiliated with the community in neighboring Bolzum in 1843. Sehnde Jews attended the Bolzum synagogue on Marktstrasse, which was destroyed by fire in 1857 and rebuilt in 1859; the building housed a school and an apartment for a teacher who also served as shochet and chazzan. It was in Bolzum, too, that the Jews of Sehnde buried their dead. In 1900, in response to Bolzum’s dwindling Jewish population, the center of the community was moved to Sehnde, after which the Bolzum synagogue was sold, and its inventory transferred to the Rose family’s home and business on Mittelstrasse in Sehnde, where a rented prayer room was established. On Pogrom Night, rioters smashed windows in the prayer room building. Jewish businesses were vandalized and looted, a Jewish woman was assaulted, and one Jew was arrested and deported to the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen. In 1941, Jews from Sehnde were deported to the Riga ghetto; in 1942, others were deported to Theresienstadt. Approximately 10 local Jews perished in the Shoah. The Bolzum cemetery was desecrated before the end of the war and vandalized in 1973. Today, it is looked after by the town of Sehnde.

Heike Zaun Goshen

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ Germansynagogues.com

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