Schwelm

Summary: Schwelm’s first two documented Jewish residents are mentioned in a local registration list dated 1593/95. The community never had an official rabbi, and in 1854 became a sub-community of Hagen. Local Jews conducted services in prayer rooms until a synagogue was built at 15 Fronhofstrasse; it was inaugurated on August 6, 1819, the same year in which a Jewish cemetery was consecrated in Schwelm. The community also maintained an elementary school—located in the synagogue building and, later, in a private residence on Neumarkt—but the school was closed in 1892 as a result of low enrollment numbers. In 1933, 54 Jews lived in Schwelm, with 34 remaining by year’s end, a result of Schwelm’s early embrace of anti- Jewish violence: SA men blocked the entrance to Jewish stores to enforce the boycott, and the town’s walls were often smeared with anti-Jewish graffiti. The community sold the synagogue building on November 14, 1937, after which the Torah scrolls were transferred to Gevelsberg. The Nazis had planned to incinerate the synagogue building on Pogrom Night, but were prevented from doing so by local authorities. Instead, they broke into the building and destroyed its interior; the building was torn down shortly afterwards. At the cemetery, gravestones were vandalized and knocked down. Several Jewish homes were also vandalized, as was the only remaining Jewish-owned store (owned by Ludwig Heinemann). In 1938, 25 Jews lived in Schwelm. When the deportations began in 1942, the seven remaining Jews were forced into a “Jews’ house” on Bahnhofsstrasse. All seven were deported to and perished in the camps. Three Jews of mixed descent were deported for slave labor and returned to Schwelm after the war. The land on which the synagogue once stood is now a park; a memorial plaque has been unveiled at the site. The defunct cemetery is located on the outskirts of town, in the district of Delle.

Author / Sources: Benjamin Rosendahl
Sources: AJ, EJL, SG-NRW