Kaisersesch

First Jewish presence: 19th century; peak Jewish population: 52 in 1895; Jewish population in 1933: 50

Although records tell us that the Jews of Kaisersesch converted an apartment building on Koblenzer Strasse into a synagogue, we cannot be sure of the year in which the synagogue opened. The Jewish community conducted services in Binningen until 1920/21, when a cemetery was consecrated on Pommerbachstrasse. In 1933, by which point the Jews of Duengenheim, Hambuch, Illerich and Muellenbach had been affiliated with the Kaisersesch community, ten schoolchildren studied religion with a teacher who also performed the duties of shochet and chazzan. On Pogrom Night, SA men from Cochem and local Nazis smashed the windows of the synagogue, destroyed the interior, assaulted local Jews and wrecked at least one Jewish-owned home. The following morning, Jews were interrogated at an old gymnasium. At least 14 Kaisersesch Jews emigrated (11 went to the United States, two to Palestine and one to Luxembourg), and approximately ten moved to Cologne. In 1942, 35 Jews from Kaisersesch and the nearby villages were moved into a single house on Hambucher Strasse; in April of that year, they were deported to the East. At least 30 local Jews perished in the Shoah. After World War II, the tax authorities in Cochem purchased the synagogue and sold it to a private individual who converted the structure into an apartment building; the building was, apparently, later demolished. In 1992, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the site from which the town’s Jews had been deported in 1942. Another plaque has been affixed to the former Jewish school building.

Heidemarie Wawrzyn

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ germansynagogues.bh.org.il

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