Koenen

First Jewish presence: in or around the year 1700; peak Jewish population: 120 in 1871 (20% of the total population); Jewish population in 1933: 54

Established in 1790, the Koenen synagogue was demolished in 1900—the building had been deemed unsafe—after which, in 1905, a new synagogue was built on Reiniger Strasse. The Jewish community also maintained a mikveh and a school, the latter of which was located in a small building near the synagogue. We also know that the Jews of Koenen employed, at least until 1914, a teacher of Hebrew and religion who performed the duties of shochet and chazzan, and that the Jewish cemetery (consecrated in or around 1850) served the community from 1855 until 1935. In June 1933, 54 Jews lived in Koenen. A welfare society for the sick and needy (called the Gemilut Chasadim) and a women’s association were active in the community, with which the Jews of Wasserliesch, Reinig and Filzen had been affiliated. On Pogrom Night, rioters destroyed the synagogue’s interior, desecrated the cemetery and wrecked Jewish homes in Wasserliesch and Reinig. After the outbreak of World War II, Koenen’s Jews were evacuated, along with the rest of the local inhabitants, as part of the general evacuation of Germany’s border areas. Although a number of Jews from Wasserliesch and Reinig were allowed to return in 1940, they are thought to have subsequently been deported. At least 47 Koenen Jews and nine from Wasserliesch and Reinig perished in the Shoah. The synagogue was transferred into private ownership in 1955 and used as a storage site. In 2002, a special society was founded for the purpose of restoring the synagogue and converting it into a cultural facility.

Esther Sarah Evans

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

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