Viersen

Residential - Viersen, North Rhine-Westphalia

First Jewish presence: 1712; peak Jewish population: 157 in 1925 or 160 in 1927; Jewish population in 1933: 130 or 141

Jonas Leffmann, the founder of the community, served as its leader for over thirty years (from 1817 to 1842). The community belonged to the synagogue district of Gladbeck until 1931, when it was recognized as an independent Jewish community. Viersen’s Jews conducted services in prayer halls until they acquired a building at 10 Rektoratsstrasse in 1862, in which the ground floor housed the Jewish school and the upper floor the synagogue. Jewish cemeteries were consecrated near Rahserstrasse (on the outskirts of town) and at Auf der Loeh, the latter of which was established at some point after 1907. In 1933, the synagogue district to which Viersen’s Jewish community belonged numbered 492 members. The town’s Jewish school was shut down in 1932. In Viersen, the boycott of Jewish-owned businesses was enforced zealously, with members of the SA and SS damaging Jewish property as early as 1933. On Pogrom Night, Jewish homes were vandalized and Jewish men were jailed in Anrath. The synagogue’s inventory was confiscated and stored in a local history museum, which was destroyed during the war. Both the synagogue and the cemetery were appropriated by the municipality. Most Jews left Viersen after Pogrom Night; only 48 still lived there in 1939. Deportations from Viersen began in 1941; according to Yad Vashem, at least 147 local Jews perished in the Shoah. The site of the former cemetery contains a memorial plaque. Viersen is no longer home to a Jewish community.

Benjamin Rosendahl

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

Notes

Sources: The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Shmuel Spector [Ed.], [publisher] Yad Vashem and the New York University Press, 2001., Lexikon der jüdischen Gemeinde in Deutschen Sprachraum, Klaus Dieter-Alicke, [publisher] Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2008., Feuer in dein Heiligtum gelegt: Zerstörte Synagogen 1938 Nordrhein-Westfalen, Michael Brooke [Ed.], Meier Schwarz [foreword], [publisher] Kamp, 1999., Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Entrance

Details

Date Added	Feb 17, 2020
Category	Residential
Country	DE
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
City	Viersen
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

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Viersen

First Jewish presence: 1712; peak Jewish population: 157 in 1925 or 160 in 1927; Jewish population in 1933: 130 or 141

Benjamin Rosendahl

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

Notes

Details

Have additional information, photos, connections, or other resources to contribute?

Jason Guberman

Executive Director

Jason Guberman-P., A social entrepreneur who specializes in building broad coalitions and melding intellectual and technical innovation, serves as founding Executive Director of Digital Heritage Mapping and is the coordinator of the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life.

Joshua Shamsi

Project Director

Joshua Shamsi, is Project Director for the Atlas of Jewish Life and Lead Photographer/Outreach Director for the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life.

Eddie Ashkenazie

Researcher

Eddie Ashkenazie, is a Yeshiva University PhD student focusing his studies on the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in the modern era.

Avital Hirsch

Avital Hirsch graduated Magna Cum Laude from Binghamton University with a BA in language and linguistics. She has studied in Rome at Istituto Lorenzo de Medici.

Glenn Dynner

Editor

Glenn Dynner. Professor of Religion, Sarah Lawrence College. BA, Brandeis University. MA, McGill University. PhD, Brandeis University. Scholar of East European Jewry with a focus on the social history of Hasidism and the Haskalah.

Chrystie Sherman

Photographer

Born in Chicago, Chrystie Sherman was educated at the University of Vermont, the University of Paris, and New York University Graduate School of Film and Television.

Gentian Xhaxiu

Researcher

Gentian Xhaxhiu, was born in Tirana, Albania, in April 1988. He has attained a Master Degree in “EU Business Law” and has successfully completed the Annual Programme of the School of Political Studies of the Council of Europe.