Sehnde
General information: First Jewish presence: 1820s; peak Jewish population: 19 in 1885; Jewish population in 1933: 11
Summary: This tiny community of Jewish traders, butchers and merchants
was affiliated with the community in neighboring Bolzum
in 1843. Sehnde Jews attended the Bolzum synagogue on
Marktstrasse, which was destroyed by fire in 1857 and rebuilt
in 1859; the building housed a school and an apartment for a
teacher who also served as shochet and chazzan. It was in Bolzum,
too, that the Jews of Sehnde buried their dead.
In 1900, in response to Bolzum’s dwindling Jewish
population, the center of the community was moved to
Sehnde, after which the Bolzum synagogue was sold, and its
inventory transferred to the Rose family’s home and business
on Mittelstrasse in Sehnde, where a rented prayer room was
established.
On Pogrom Night, rioters smashed windows in the prayer
room building. Jewish businesses were vandalized and looted,
a Jewish woman was assaulted, and one Jew was arrested
and deported to the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen.
In 1941, Jews from Sehnde were deported to the Riga
ghetto; in 1942, others were deported to Theresienstadt.
Approximately 10 local Jews perished in the Shoah.
The Bolzum cemetery was desecrated before the end of
the war and vandalized in 1973. Today, it is looked after by
the town of Sehnde.
Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AH, IAJGS JGNB1
www.begegnung-christen-juden.de/bcjbilder/PDF/sehnde.pdf
Sources: AH, IAJGS JGNB1
www.begegnung-christen-juden.de/bcjbilder/PDF/sehnde.pdf
Located in: lower-saxony