Poppenlauer
General information: First Jewish presence: 1700; peak Jewish population: 120 in 1837 (9.6% of the total population); Jewish population in 1933: 45
Summary: The Jewish community of Poppenlauer conducted services
in a prayer hall until 1867, when a synagogue was dedicated
at 5 Gehrigsgasse; the building also housed classrooms for
the Jewish elementary school, which closed down in 1924.
The community owned a mikveh and an apartment building,
but buried its dead in Massbach.
In 1933, four children studied religion with a teacher
from Massbach. A Jewish women’s association was active
in the village that year, but it shut down soon afterwards
as a result of the Nazis’ economic policies against the Jews.
On the morning following Pogrom Night, 60 SA men
from Massbach, accompanied by local SA members and
many Poppenlauer residents, broke into and wrecked the
houses of the village’s last nine Jewish families, after which
the rioters destroyed the synagogue’s interior and ritual
objects.
Twenty-two Poppenlauer Jews fled abroad (many to the
United States) and five relocated within Germany. In April
1942, 14 Jews were deported to Izbica (via Wuerzburg);
and in July 1942, seven were sent to the Theresienstadt
ghetto (also via Wuerzburg). The fate of three Poppenlauer
Jews (they were presumably married to Christians) remains
unknown. At least 20 Poppenlauer Jews perished in the
Shoah.
The synagogue building and the mikveh survived the Nazi
period.
Author / Sources: Magret Liat Wolf
Sources: AJ, PK BAV
www.reinhardklopf.de/Juden1x.html
Sources: AJ, PK BAV
www.reinhardklopf.de/Juden1x.html
Located in: bavaria