Framersheim

First Jewish presence: 1672; peak Jewish population: 105 in 1861; Jewish population in 1933: 28

By 1835, the Jews of Framersheim had inaugurated a synagogue on the Marktplatz (market place). Consecrated in the early 19th century, Framersheim’s Jewish cemetery was renovated in 1841 and enlarged in 1887; later, in 1894, a new cemetery was consecrated next to the Christian burial grounds. Framersheim was also home to a mikveh, built there in 1840. At some point during the 19th century, the community began to employ teachers of religion who also served as cantors and ritual slaughterers. Beginning in the late 1800s, however, Jewish education was provided by teachers from the surrounding Jewish communities; these teachers also presided over synagogue services. In March 1933, after the Reichstag fire, Framersheim’s community chairman was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Although regular services had not been conducted at the synagogue since 1933, the building was renovated in 1935. On Pogrom Night, rioters set the synagogue on fire, desecrated the cemetery and heavily damaged Jewish homes. Local Jewish men were sent to a concentration camp. Seven Framersheim Jews emigrated during the Nazi period; others relocated within Germany. A local Jewish woman left in January 1940, after which the only remaining Jew was a woman married to an ethnic German. At least 12 Framersheim Jews perished in the Shoah. The old cemetery was destroyed in 1944. A residential property was later built on the former synagogue site.

Nurit Borut

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

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