Bretten

Residential - Bretten, Baden-Wuerttemberg

First Jewish presence: 1264; peak Jewish population: 265 in 1895; Jewish population in 1933: 114

In Bretten, it was not until after the Thirty Years’ War that a lasting Jewish community began to develop. In 1827, a district rabbinate was established in the village. The community conducted services in private residences houses until 1822, when a synagogue—it housed a school between 1835 and 1876—was inaugurated in Bretten. In 1933, 114 Jews lived in Bretten. The community maintained a cemetery and several associations and youth groups. The district rabbi was Dr. Siegfried Grzymisch. Bretten’s Jewish population actually increased after the Nazis’ rise to power. On Pogrom Night, the community center, Jewish-owned businesses and the synagogue were destroyed. The synagogue was set on fire: 25 Torah scrolls, together with other ritual objects, went up in flames. At noon the following day, members of the SA and SS paraded Jewish men through town before forcing them to stand in front of the synagogue and listen to a racist tirade. All Jewish men under 60 were sent to Dachau. Between 1937 and 1940, at least 76 local Jews emigrated; 36 moved to other German cities. Eighteen Jews, the town’s last, were eventually deported to Gurs, France. At least 23 Bretten Jews perished in the Shoah. A memorial stone was unveiled at the synagogue site in 1979; it was replaced in 1988.

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.

Details

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

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Bretten

First Jewish presence: 1264; peak Jewish population: 265 in 1895; Jewish population in 1933: 114

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?

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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.