Ottweiler
General information: First Jewish presence: 1723; peak Jewish population: 170 in 1843; Jewish population in 1933: 70
Summary: A private Jewish prayer room is thought to have existed in
Ottweiler, on Sammetgasse, in the late 18th century. We know
for certain, however, that a synagogue was inaugurated on
Schlosshof in 1803, and that it was moved to a larger building
in 1840. The community maintained a school, established in
1825 and presided over by a teacher who served as chazzan
and shochet, and a cemetery on present-day Maria-Juchacz
Ring (consecrated in 1842).
In 1933, a Jewish women’s association was active in the
community; a teacher from Illingen instructed schoolchildren
in religion. After the Saar region was returned to Germany
(March 1935), most Jews left Ottweiler: 25 emigrated and
35 relocated within Germany.
The synagogue’s interior, furniture and ritual objects were
destroyed on Pogrom Night; Ottweiler’s Jewish cemetery
was desecrated, Jewish-owned homes and businesses were
vandalized and Jewish men were assaulted and sent to the
Saarbruecken prison, from where the younger men were
transferred to Dachau. The defunct community sold the
synagogue site to the municipality after the pogrom.
On October 22, 1940, Ottweiler’s remaining 13 Jews
were deported to Gurs. At least 34 local Jews perished in
the Shoah.
In 1945, the cemetery was restored; and in 1992, 30
years after the synagogue ruins were demolished, a combined
commercial and residential building, to which a memorial
plaque has been affixed, was built on the site.
Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AJ, EJL
Sources: AJ, EJL
Located in: saarland