Staudernheim

Summary: The Jews of Staudernheim conducted services on the upper floor of a Jewish-owned business on Hauptstrasse until 1896, when a synagogue was inaugurated at 79 Oberdorf (present-day 3 Am Wolfsgang). The small community was able to maintain a cemetery, which was consecrated in 1850 and enlarged in 1887, a mikveh and a Jewish school. Records suggest that a teacher served the community in the 18th century, and we know for certain that a teacher from nearby Sobernheim later instructed Staudernheim’s Jewish schoolchildren in religion. In 1933, 21 Jews lived in Staudernheim. Later, on Pogrom Night (November 1938), the synagogue’s door and windows were smashed, as was the Star of David. The ritual objects, which had been transferred to Sobernheim, were destroyed there that night. Most Jews left Staudernheim; 11 of them immigrated to the United States. One local Jew died from wounds inflicted by Nazi assaulters, three were deported to the East in 1942 and one Jewish woman—she was married to a Christian— survived the war in Staudernheim. At least 12 Staudernheim Jews perished in the Shoah. In 1943, the municipality appropriated the synagogue building, after it was used initially as a soldiers’ club, and later as a center for the air corps’ Hitler youth, a shelter for post-war German refugees and, finally, as a garage. The site, declared a cultural monument in 1986, was purchased in 1995 by a local memorial society.

Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AJ, EJL, FGW
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