Braunsbach

Residential - Braunsbach, Baden-Wuerttemberg

First Jewish presence: 1606; peak Jewish population: 2,893 in 1843; Jewish population in 1933: 39

The Jews of Braunsbach established a prayer room at the end of the 1600s, a synagogue in 1732 and a cemetery in 1738. Between 1832 and 1913, a district rabbinate housing a school and living quarters for the local rabbi was based at 8 Im Rabbinat. Rabbi Menko Berlinger and Dr. Jacob Berlinger, both of the famous Berlinger family, served as rabbis. The rabbinate moved to Schwaebisch-Hall in 1914, but the building continued to function intermittently as a school. In 1933, a poster campaign denouncing any Gentile who associated with Jews as a Judenfreund, or “Jew-friend,” was launched in Braunsbach. Later, on Pogrom Night, SA men from Schwaebisch-Hall wrecked the synagogue’s interior. Seventeen local Jews emigrated from Germany. The remaining Jews were deported to Riga, Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, where nearly all died. According to Yad Vashem, 35 Braunsbach Jews perished in the Shoah. The synagogue, mikveh and rabbinate have been preserved to some degree; in fact, Braunsbach is thought to be the only place in Germany where this happened. The synagogue’s ruins were integrated into a festival and sports complex called the Burgenlandhalle. In 1978, a Jewish man living in Switzerland donated a plaque to mark the synagogue’s location; the plaque was moved to the entrance of the Rosenstein hall (part of the Burgenlandhalle) in 1984.

Esther Sarah Evans

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

Notes

Sources: Alemannia Judaica, www.alemannia-judaica.de The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Shmuel Spector [Ed.], [publisher] Yad Vashem and the New York University Press, 2001., Zentral Archiv zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, Heidelberg University at: www.zentralarchiv.uni-hd.de Der Foerderverein "Rabbinatsgebaeude", Braunsbach

Details

Date Added	Apr 30, 2020
Category	Residential
Country	DE
State	Baden-Wuerttemberg
City	Braunsbach
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

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Braunsbach

First Jewish presence: 1606; peak Jewish population: 2,893 in 1843; Jewish population in 1933: 39

Esther Sarah Evans

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

Notes

Details

Have additional information, photos, connections, or other resources to contribute?

Jason Guberman

Executive Director

Jason Guberman-P., A social entrepreneur who specializes in building broad coalitions and melding intellectual and technical innovation, serves as founding Executive Director of Digital Heritage Mapping and is the coordinator of the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life.

Joshua Shamsi

Project Director

Joshua Shamsi, is Project Director for the Atlas of Jewish Life and Lead Photographer/Outreach Director for the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life.

Eddie Ashkenazie

Researcher

Eddie Ashkenazie, is a Yeshiva University PhD student focusing his studies on the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in the modern era.

Avital Hirsch

Avital Hirsch graduated Magna Cum Laude from Binghamton University with a BA in language and linguistics. She has studied in Rome at Istituto Lorenzo de Medici.

Glenn Dynner

Editor

Glenn Dynner. Professor of Religion, Sarah Lawrence College. BA, Brandeis University. MA, McGill University. PhD, Brandeis University. Scholar of East European Jewry with a focus on the social history of Hasidism and the Haskalah.

Chrystie Sherman

Photographer

Born in Chicago, Chrystie Sherman was educated at the University of Vermont, the University of Paris, and New York University Graduate School of Film and Television.

Gentian Xhaxiu

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Gentian Xhaxhiu, was born in Tirana, Albania, in April 1988. He has attained a Master Degree in “EU Business Law” and has successfully completed the Annual Programme of the School of Political Studies of the Council of Europe.