Meschede
First Jewish presence: early 19th century; Jewish population in 1895: 103 (no data available on peak population); Jewish population in 1933: 45
Records suggest that the Jews of Meschede might have maintained a prayer room and school in the 1820s. Services were conducted in a prayer room on Mittelstrasse until 1879, when the community inaugurated a synagogue on Kampstrasse; the site also accommodated a schoolroom, a caretaker’s apartment and lodgings for the chazzan/teacher. Burials were conducted in the Jewish cemetery on Beringhauser Strasse, which had been consecrated before 1851. In 1933, 45 Jews lived in Meschede. Jewish schoolchildren received religious instruction, and a Christian woman was employed as the synagogue’s caretaker. On the morning after Pogrom Night, SS men set Torah scrolls on fire and broke the synagogue’s windows and furniture; members of the SA destroyed a stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments. In Meschede, Jewish homes and stores were damaged on Pogrom Night. The synagogue was sold five days after the pogrom, and was converted into a carpenter’s shop in 1940. Most local Jews had left Meschede by 1939. In 1943, a Jewish couple was deported. According to Yad Vashem, at least 10 Meschede Jews perished in the Shoah. Damaged during an air raid in 1945, the synagogue building was renovated after the war. A memorial stone commemorates the destroyed house of worship.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., Bedenke vor wem du stehst: 300 Synagogen und ihre Geschichte in Westfalen und Lippe, Günter Birkmann and Harmut Stratmann, [publisher] Klartext Verlag, 1998., Synagogen Internet Archiv, www.synagogen.info , W-G, Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Entrance
Details
| Date Added | Mar 16, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Category | Residential |
| Country | DE |
| State | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| City | Meschede |
| Exhibits | Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany |
Have additional information, photos, connections, or other resources to contribute?
Help Us in the race against time to time document Jewish history!
