Wunstorf
General information: 1st Jewish presence: 13th century (1st recorded in the 16th century); peak Jewish pop.: 88 in 1860 (3.9% of the total pop.); Jewish pop. in 1933: 46
Summary: Three Jews lived in Wunstorf in 1700, after which the town’s
Jewish population grew steadily. The community maintained
two cemeteries—on Hohen Holz before 1690 and, after
1830, on Nordrehr—as well as a school and a synagogue
on Nordstrasse, the last of which was replaced in 1913 by a new house of worship on Kuesterstrasse, whose premises
contained a mikveh, a school and a teacher’s apartment.
In 1933, six Jewish schoolchildren studied religion
under the guidance of a teacher/chazzan. A women’s welfare
association (established in 1849) and a branch of the Central
Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith (established
in 1920) were active in Wunstorf.
On Pogrom Night, SA troops vandalized shops and
homes, destroyed the synagogue’s interior, burned its books
and desecrated the new cemetery. A Jew was humiliated in
public; another was beaten up. All Jews were forced to spend
the night in the basement of the city hall, and some were
abused. We also know that eight Wunstorf Jews were sent,
via Hanover, to Buchenwald, from where seven returned in
1938/39. In total, 27 Jews left the town during the years
1933 to 1939.
In 1941, all patients at the local psychiatric hospital
(including Jews) were deported to Brandenburg; in 1941/42,
Wunstorf ’s remaining Jewish residents were deported, via
Ahlem, to the East. At least 41 Wunstorf Jews perished in
the Shoah.
Renovated by Jewish soldiers from the British army after
the war, the synagogue was sold in 1955. Today, the structure
serves as an apartment building, to which a plaque was affixed
in 1988. In 2002, a memorial was erected near Marktkirche.
Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: EJL, FJG, GELKB, HU, JGNB1, JSN, SIA
de.indymedia.org/2008/11/232076.shtml
Sources: EJL, FJG, GELKB, HU, JGNB1, JSN, SIA
de.indymedia.org/2008/11/232076.shtml
Located in: lower-saxony