Walldorf
General information: First Jewish presence: 1470; peak Jewish population: 169 in 1852; Jewish population in 1933: 53
Summary: Community records indicate that by 1767 Walldorf ’s
Jews had established a prayer hall in a residence at 45
Hauptstrasse. Local Jews opened a synagogue (in a former
Protestant church) in 1861 and a school in 1835, the
latter of which closed in 1876. Burials were conducted
in Wiesloch until 1880, when a Jewish cemetery was
consecrated in Walldorf.
In 1933, five Jewish schoolchildren studied religion in
the town. A chevra kadisha and a Jewish women’s association
were active there.
Local Jewish men were sent to Dachau on Pogrom Night,
when rioters demolished the synagogue’s interior and Torah
Ark, vandalized three homes and looted Jewish-owned
stores. Later, the street on which the synagogue stood—
Synagogenstrasse, or “synagogue street”—was renamed SA
Strasse.
Twenty-one Jews emigrated, 10 died in Walldorf
(including three women who committed suicide, one on
Pogrom Night) and 21 were deported to Gurs on October
22, 1940. At least 27 Walldorf Jews perished during the
Shoah.
The prayer room building, now a residence, bears a
memorial plaque. The street name Synagogenstrasse was
reinstated after the war and, in 1954, the synagogue was
converted into a church; it, too, bears a memorial plaque.
Commemorative plaques were unveiled at the general
cemetery in 1985.
Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AH. AJ, EJL, HU, PK BW
Sources: AH. AJ, EJL, HU, PK BW
Located in: baden-wuerttemberg