First Jewish presence: 17th century; peak Jewish population: 98 in 1867 or 133 in 1848; Jewish population in 1932/33: 43
The earliest available record of a Jewish presence in Menden is dated 1643. The community conducted services in a prayer room on Wasserstrasse until 1821, when a synagogue, the first in the Iserlohn region, was inaugurated on the corner of Hochstrasse and Synagogengasse (“synagogue alley”); the building also accommodated a women’s gallery and a schoolroom. In Menden, a Jewish cemetery was consecrated on Am Bromberken in 1837. During the years 1861 to 1878, five local Jews were elected to the town council. In 1932/33, 43 Jews lived in Menden; 11 schoolchildren received religions instruction. Later, on Pogrom Night, SA men and local civilians damaged the synagogue’s door and windows, threw Torah scrolls onto the street, burned down part of the interior and desecrated the cemetery. The synagogue building was renovated as a furniture shop in May 1939. In all, 13 Jews left Menden. Thirteen were deported in April and July of 1942, and at least 17 local Jews died in the Shoah. The former synagogue building was torn down in 1952; at the site, which now accommodates a new building, a plaque commemorates the synagogue and a memorial stone commemorates Menden’s Jewish deportees.Heidemarie Wawrzyn
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., Führer durch die Jüdische Gemeindeverwaltung und Wohlfahrtspflege in Deutschland 1923-1933, Andreas Nachama, Simon Hermann [Eds.], [publisher] Edition Hentrich, 1995., 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 , Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Entrance Birkmann, Guenter/ Stratmann, Hartmut: Bedenke vor wem du stehst. Essen 1998.
Details
| Date Added | Mar 16, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Category | Residential |
| Country | DE |
| State | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| City | Menden |
| Exhibits | Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany |
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