Muelheim an der Ruhr

First Jewish presence: 1620; peak Jewish population: 664 in 1920; Jewish population in 1933: 448 or 517

During the 17th century, under the protection of the Broich duchy, a few Jewish families were allowed to live in Muelheim an der Ruhr and work as traders, butchers or moneylenders. The congregation established a prayer hall near the Petri church in the mid-18th century; and in 1792, the same year in which the community drew up its first charter, a synagogue was inaugurated on the corner of Notweg and Jackenstrasse (it was enlarged on several occasions). Muelheim’s Jewish school, opened in an adjoining building in or around the year 1820, was recognized as an official elementary school at some point between 1861 and 1875. The Jewish congregation received official independent status in 1855. Burial grounds were acquired in or around 1720; the cemetery, which was expanded on three different occasions, is still in use. In order to accommodate the growing congregation, for whom the synagogue’s 150 seats were no longer sufficient, the community consecrated a new synagogue (on Viktoriaplatz) on August 2, 1907; the neo-Romantic building accommodated 300 men, 250 women (separate entrances were used), a mikveh, several assembly rooms and a smaller synagogue for weekday services. Active in the community were a sisterhood, other charity organizations, a youth movement, a sports club and a literature club. Many Orthodox Jews from Eastern Europe settled in Muelheim, some of whom formed a separate cultural association and a prayer room in nearby Oberhausen (on Marktstrasse). In 1932, as anti-Jewish violence escalated in Muelheim, the Jewish cemetery was desecrated. Jews were denied entrance to public places, doctors were banned from medical associations and lawyers were forced to give up their cases. Arthur Kaufman, an influential Muelheimer artist who in the 1920s served as the first director of the School for Decorative Art, was dismissed from his post. The synagogue was sold four weeks before Pogrom Night, for the community was unable to continue its maintenance. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue’s interior—including its furniture, books and Torah scrolls—was destroyed, as were Jewish-owned stores and homes. Muelheim’s fire brigade burned down the synagogue building the following morning. Those Jews who were not arrested on Pogrom Night were forcibly moved into “ghetto houses” in the city center, after which they were used as forced laborers. Approximately 290 local Jews were deported to the camps in Eastern Europe, where at least 266 perished. According to records, 50 local Jews committed suicide during the Nazi period. The town’s new Jewish congregation, founded in cooperation with Jews in Duisburg in 1955, inaugurated a new synagogue on Kampstrasse in 1960. In 1988, a memorial plaque bearing the names of local Shoah survivors was unveiled in Muelheim; Viktoriaplatz was later renamed “Former Synagogue Square.”

Ruth Martina Trucks

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

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