Soetern

First Jewish presence: early 17th century (possibly earlier); peak Jewish population: 233 in 1846; Jewish population in 1933: 9

Records are not clear about when Jews first arrived in Soetern, but we know for certain that it was before the Thirty Years’ War. An old synagogue and mikveh, consecrated in or around the year 1650, were the oldest in the region. Soetern’s modern Jewish community established a private Jewish school in 1830 and a synagogue (at 30 Hopstaedten) in 1840. After 1910, the year in which the school was officially recognized as a public school, the rabbi from Hopstaedten instructed Soetern’s Jewish children in religion. In 1933, windows were smashed in a Jewish-owned business; the owner was later arrested for “communist agitation,” after which he disappeared. On Pogrom Night, Jews were forced to destroy the synagogue’s interior and its ritual objects. Businesses and homes were ransacked, Jews were assaulted, the cemetery was desecrated and several Jews were sent to Dachau. Twenty-seven Soetern Jews emigrated and 36 relocated within Germany. In April 1942, 24 Jews were deported to the East; and in July 1942, 10 Jews, Soetern’s last, were deported to Theresienstadt. Only one Jew (he/she was married to a Christian) remained in Soetern after the deportations. At least 60-65 local Jews perished in the Shoah. The synagogue was remodeled as a combined residential and commercial building after the war. Soetern’s Jewish cemetery was renovated in 1946 and desecrated in 2008.

Esther Sarah Evans

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

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