Stendal

First Jewish presence: 1260s; peak Jewish population: 104 in 1892; Jewish population in 1933: 611

Although the Jews of Stendal were granted property rights as early as 1297, their subsequent history in the town was turbulent: persecution in 1350, expulsion in 1446, re- admittance in 1453 and another expulsion in 1510. Jews were permitted to return in Stendal during the reign of Elector Joachim II (1535-71)—five Jewish families lived there in 1564—but were expelled yet again after his death. It was not until 1847 that a continuous Jewish presence was established in Stendal. The modern Jewish community, which was affiliated with that of Tangermuende until 1857, hired its own teacher/ cantor in 1861. Local Jews established a synagogue in 1887 and a cemetery (at 3 Uenglingerstrasse) in 1893. In 1932/33 the leader of the community was Jakob Mattischack. That year, Abraham Rathenow, the teacher, instructed four children in religion. On Pogrom Night, rioters wrecked and burned the synagogue. Records from 1939 tell us that only 23 Jews lived in Stendal that year; those who did not escape were, presumably, deported, for only three Jews—they were probably married to Christians—were still living in Stendal in 1942. At least 22 Stendal Jews perished in the Shoah. A memorial plaque was unveiled in Stendal in 1995, and the cemetery, in which one can find 50 extant headstones, has been preserved; in Bruchstrasse, a single memorial stumbling block commemorates Stendal’s former synagogue.

Esther Sarah Evans

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

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