First Jewish presence: 18th century; peak Jewish population: 92 in 1847; Jewish population in 1933: 90
It was not until the 18th century that a Jewish settlement was established in Huerth. The community, which was made up of cloth merchants, livestock traders and moneylenders, built a synagogue on Weierstrasse in 1856. On Pogrom Night, SA troops destroyed the small synagogue building, after which an artisans’ organization bought the property and used it as carpenter’s workshop. The Jewish cemetery was also “aryanized”; the bodies were exhumed and the site leveled. In the summer of 1941, Huerth’s remaining 11 Jews were forcibly moved into a “Jews’ House” on Olbruchstrasse; and in June and July of 1942, six of them were deported to Theresienstadt and five to the Minsk Ghetto. All perished. Three local Jews who were married to Christians survived the war in Huerth. In November 1991, a memorial plaque was erected on Weierstrasse. Since 1996, a signpost has directed passersby to “the Old Synagogue.”Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
Notes
Sources: Ashkenaz House, www.ashkenazhouse.org/synagogue-main.htm 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., Synagogen Internet Archiv, www.synagogen.info , Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Entrance
Details
| Date Added | Feb 24, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Category | Residential |
| Country | DE |
| State | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| City | Huerth (Hürth) |
| Exhibits | Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany |
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