Nieder-Saulheim

First Jewish presence: 18th century; peak Jewish population: 71 in 1861; Jewish population in 1933: 29

In 1850, the Jewish community of Nieder-Saulheim (Lower Saulheim) converted a house on Am Kapellenberg into a synagogue (renovated in 1912). On New Year’s Eve, 1918, the synagogue’s windows were smashed. Although services were not conducted in the synagogue during the years 1924 to 1936—probably for lack of a minyan and a chazzan—the community still managed to consecrate a Jewish cemetery, located inside the municipal burial grounds, in 1936, prior to which burials had been conducted in Jugenheim. In 1933, Nieder-Saulheim’s Jewish population was 29; the three Jews of Ober-Saulheim (Upper Saulheim) were affiliated with the community. Later, in 1936, the Jewish community of Mainz sent a chazzan and some congregants to Nieder-Saulheim, enabling the resumption of synagogue services there. The political situation, however, deteriorated to such an extent that, in August 1938, the Union of Jewish Communities of Hesse asked the Jewish authorities to send food to the beleaguered Nieder-Saulheim community, as German shop owners and traders were refusing to sell to Jews. On Pogrom Night, at which point 10 Jews lived in Nieder- Saulheim and one in Ober-Saulheim, the synagogue was destroyed. The community was disbanded shortly afterwards. One Nieder-Saulheim Jew emigrated and 24 relocated within Germany. At least four local Jews perished in the Shoah.

Esther Sarah Evans

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

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