Osterode am Harz
General information: First Jewish presence: 15th century (possibly 14th century); peak Jewish population: 123 in 1830 (2.8 % of the total population); Jewish population in
Summary: The Jewish community of Osterode was founded in 1697.
A rabbinate was based in Osterode from 1698 until 1709
and again from 1809 until 1813.
The 17th-century Jewish community established a
synagogue in a private residence—a rear building on Langer
Krummer Bruch. The Jews of Osterode purchased the
synagogue site in the 1780s; in 1893/94, the front building
was converted into a school and an apartment for the teacher.
The synagogue was replaced by a larger house of worship in
1788, and we also know that the community maintained
two cemeteries: the first, established in or around the year
1670 and enlarged in 1844, was closed in 1863; the second,
established on Schwimmbadstrasse, opened in 1869. In 1934, Jewish-owned stores were
damaged. A shochet and a teacher/
chazzan served the community that
year, and three schoolchildren received
religious instruction. A local branch
of the Central Association of German
Citizens of Jewish Faith (established in
1924) and a Zionist group (founded in
1935) were active in the community
of the 1930s. The community was
dissolved in June 1938.
On Pogrom Night, SS men
destroyed the synagogue’s interior
and the teacher’s apartment. Jewish
homes and a Jewish-owned store were
vandalized, and four or five men were
imprisoned. The synagogue and school
were sold in 1938.
At least 29 Jews emigrated from Germany; 15 moved to
other German cities or to the Netherlands. Two Jews were
deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 and 1945. Between three
and ten Osterode/Harz Jews perished in the Shoah.
The synagogue building—it served as a workshop after
the war—was later converted into an apartment building to
which a memorial plaque has been affixed. The new cemetery
was desecrated in 1988.
Photo: The Jewish school and synagogue building in Osterode am Harz in the 1920s or 1930s. Courtesy of: City Archive of Osterode, ref. 10- 01-118-026.
Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: EJL, FGW, JGNB1, SIA YV
www.landkreis-osterode.de/
www.alpha64.de/synagoge
Sources: EJL, FGW, JGNB1, SIA YV
www.landkreis-osterode.de/
www.alpha64.de/synagoge
Located in: lower-saxony