Grevenbroich

Residential - Grevenbroich, North Rhine-Westphalia

First Jewish presence: 1096; peak Jewish population: 94 in 1910; Jewish population in 1933: 73

After being forced out of Cologne in 1096, Jews fled to Grevenbroich. A considerable Jewish presence, however, was not established there until 1848, when the Grevenbroich Jewish community was founded. An article, written by the mayor in 1816, revealed that one of the city’s buildings had been used as a synagogue 150 to 200 years earlier. Accordingly, the Jewish community claimed the building, renovated it and converted it into a synagogue. Viewed from the outside, the building looked more like an apartment block than a synagogue. It was also used by the kosher butcher, who converted the rear of the building into a slaughterhouse. Although the mayor prevented the SS from burning down the synagogue on Pogrom Night, the men nevertheless destroyed its interior and threw the ritual articles onto the street. The building was eventually destroyed in a bombing raid. Today, the site is an open area; a memorial plaque has been erected there.

Moshe Finkel

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., Synagogen Internet Archiv, www.synagogen.info

Details

Date Added	Feb 19, 2020
Category	Residential
Country	DE
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
City	Grevenbroich
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

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Grevenbroich

First Jewish presence: 1096; peak Jewish population: 94 in 1910; Jewish population in 1933: 73

Moshe Finkel

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.