Montabaur

First Jewish presence: 1338; peak Jewish population: 117 in 1905; Jewish population in 1933: 82

The earliest records of a Jewish presence in Montabaur refer to the anti-Jewish persecutions of 1338 and 1348/49. It is quite possible that individual Jews lived in Montabaur in the 15th and 16th centuries, but it was not until the 17th century that an organized community emerged there. Montabaur Jews had established a synagogue by 1691; founded a prayer room in the mid- 18th century; a new synagogue, at 5 Wallstrasse, in 1889 (renovated in 1930); and a cemetery in 1910. We also know that the community maintained a school and a mikveh. In 1933, a teacher/chazzan instructed nine children in religion. A women’s group and a youth association were active in the community, with which the Jews of Wirges were affiliated. The synagogue was broken into on the night of November 3, 1938; some ritual objects were destroyed that night, and others were stolen. On Pogrom Night, rioters destroyed the synagogue’s interior, assaulted local Jews and wrecked Jewish-owned homes and businesses. A Jewish man and his daughter committed suicide, another Jew died trying to escape, and others were marched to the town hall and beaten. Jewish men were sent to Buchenwald. Forty-one Montabaur Jews emigrated while others relocated within Germany. In August 1941, the town’s remaining eight Jews were deported to a camp in Friedrichssegen-Lahn; of these, four died in Friedrichssegen-Lahn and four were deported to Poland in September 1942. At least 26 local Jews perished in the Shoah. The synagogue was demolished in the 1940s, but a memorial plaque was later unveiled at the site. Montabaur’s Jewish cemetery was desecrated in 1943 and again in 1983.

Esther Sarah Evans

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

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