Linz Am Rhein

First Jewish presence: 1219 or 1222; peak Jewish population: 142 in 1892/93;Jewish population in 1933: 64

The Jewish community of Linz, formed in the late 16th century, consecrated a synagogue in the early 17th century; a prayer room in 1763; a new synagogue, on Auf dem Berg, in 1851; a cemetery in 1854; and a mikveh on an unspecified date. The community center at 20, Neustrasse (1841) housed a private Jewish school. Classified as a Jewish elementary school in 1881, the school was presided over by a teacher who also served as chazzan and shochet. By 1911, the school was offering religious instruction only, as a result of which lessons were conducted in the teacher’s apartment. In 1933, nine Jewish children received religious instruction in Linz. Several Jewish associations—a women’s group, charities, and a society for the study of Jewish literature—were active in the community, to which the Jews of Unkel and Rheinbreitbach had been affiliated. The community center was sold in 1936. On Pogrom Night, rioters destroyed the interior of the synagogue and the village’s seven remaining Jewish homes. Later, in September 1940, the remaining Jews were forced to move into a few Jewish-owned houses. Twelve Linz Jews were deported to the East in March 1942, and seven were sent to Theresienstadt in July of the same year. At least 57 Jews originally from Linz, four from Unkel and 15 from Rheinbreitbach perished in the Shoah. Linz’s former synagogue, later used as a warehouse, was converted into a residential building in the mid-1980s. A memorial plaque was affixed to the building in 1992.

Esther Sarah Evans

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

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