Ochtrup

First Jewish presence: 1720; peak Jewish population: 43 in 1848; Jewish population in 1933: unknown (44 in 1931)

Owing to local administrative resistance, the growth of this Jewish community, made up largely of cattle and meat dealers, was very slow. Prayer services were conducted in private residences until the 1860s, when the community acquired a plot of land on which it inaugurated a synagogue in 1868. In order to provide religious instruction for children, the community hired a teacher from nearby Bergstein. In the early 1900s, local Jews, hoping to attract new congregants, made plans for the construction of a new synagogue, but these plans fell through due to a lack of funds. On Pogrom Night, the interior of the synagogue was vandalized by local Nazis who hurled the ritual objects, including the Torah scrolls, onto the street. The fire brigade extinguished the ensuing fire, but the building was demolished in 1959 and rebuilt for residential purposes. A memorial plaque was unveiled at the site in the mid-1980s. Fourteen local Jews were deported to Eastern Europe in 1941/42; it is not known if any survived. The cemetery contains 43 intact tombstones.

Harold Slutzkin

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

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