"We also know that the community maintained its own synagogue—a two story building on Wilhelmstrasse—after 1920.... In November 1938, local residents and SS men from Oberber set the Ruppichteroth synagogue on fire, after which the fire department attempted to extinguish the blaze.On November 15, 1938, Gustav Gaertner was ordered to close the synagogue, and a Jew was forced to remove the Star of David from its roof. The property was appropriated by a local farmer some months later...After the war, Zionists conducted meetings in the building in which the synagogue was located. Now a hotel-restaurant, the structure is protected as a cultural monument."
Esther Sarah Evans
Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ Germansynagogues.com

Notes

Sources: Führer durch die Jüdische Gemeindeverwaltung und Wohlfahrtspflege in Deutschland 1923-1933, Andreas Nachama, Simon Hermann [Eds.], [publisher] Edition Hentrich, 1995., Lexikon der jüdischen Gemeinde in Deutschen Sprachraum, Klaus Dieter-Alicke, [publisher] Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2008., Feuer in dein Heiligtum gelegt: Zerstörte Synagogen 1938 Nordrhein-Westfalen, Michael Brooke [Ed.], Meier Schwarz [foreword], [publisher] Kamp, 1999.

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