Miehlen

First Jewish presence: 1780; peak Jewish population: 64 in 1910; Jewish population in 1933: 45-50

In 1817, the Jewish community of Miehlen established a prayer hall in a private residence. The building was damaged by fire in 1872, after which, in 1873, a new synagogue and mikveh were inaugurated on Hauptstrasse. Local Jews also maintained a cemetery on Ehrlichsberg and a Jewish welfare association, the latter of which was founded in 1850. Beginning in 1818, the Jewish communities of Miehlen, Fachbach and Nievern jointly employed a teacher of religious studies; the teacher was expelled from the area in 1829, but Jewish children continued to study religion with a teacher from Ruppertshofen and, later, with one from Nastaetten. In 1924, local Nazis assaulted four Miehlen Jews. Later, in 1933/34, bullets and stones were fired and thrown into several Jewish-owned homes; and in September 1935, SA men destroyed the synagogue’s interior. The synagogue’s interior was destroyed yet again on Pogrom Night (November 1938). Rioters smashed windows, stole ritual objects and turned on the building’s water taps, flooding the premises. Jewish-owned homes and stores were destroyed, the cemetery was desecrated and several Jews were assaulted. After the pogrom, a group of local Jews were taken to Frankfurt am Main, where three of them died. Between 1933 and 1938, most Miehlen Jews either emigrated from or relocated in Germany; many immigrated to the United States and to Palestine. The village’s last Jewish couple moved to Frankfurt in October 1939. At least 17 local Jews perished in the Shoah. Sold in 1950, the former synagogue was demolished in 1964 to make room for an extension to a neighboring apartment building.

Heidemarie Wawrzyn

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

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