Sulzbuerg

Summary: Sulzbuerg was home to a synagogue by the year 1371. Local Jews consecrated a cemetery in the 15th (possible 14th) century, but it was almost completely destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War. Another synagogue was built either in 1677 or in 1706, and yet another was established, at 63 Hauptstrasse (which later became 14, Engelgasse) in 1799. The community opened a Jewish elementary school in 1835— which was closed down in 1924— renovated the synagogue in 1849 and again in 1926, and enlarged the cemetery in 1855 and again in 1905. The village was also home to a district rabbinate, established in the 19th century, until 1931, when the rabbinate, then called Sulzbuerg-Neumarkt, merged with the one in Regensburg. Several Jewish charity associations were active in Sulzbuerg in 1933; Ezra, the Orthodox youth movement, owned a country home in Sulzbuerg. On Pogrom Night, axe-wielding rioters destroyed the synagogue’s interior, its ritual objects, and 12 Torah scrolls. The village’s Jews, most of whom were elderly, were arrested; they were released shortly afterwards, but one man was beaten and deported to Dachau. Six Sulzbuerg Jews emigrated during the Nazi period. In April 1942, seven were deported to Piaski; three were deported to Theresienstadt in September of the same year. At least 18 Sulzbuerg Jews perished in the Shoah. Sulzbuerg’s synagogue was later converted into a residential building.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
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