Coburg
General information: First Jewish presence: 13th century; peak Jewish population: 316 in 1925; Jewish population in 1933: 233
Summary:
Jews were persecuted in Coburg during the Black Death
pogroms of 1348/49, and were expelled from the town again
shortly after 1447. The modern community was founded
in 1873.
A Catholic church called the Nikolauskapelle, located
on Ketscherdorfer Strasse, was converted into a synagogue
in 1873 and enlarged in 1889. The community founded a
Jewish school in 1873 and a cemetery in 1878. Hermann
Hirsch, who was appointed rabbi in 1909, established a
Jewish boys’ boarding school in 1917/18.
Coburg, a major Nazi stronghold, elected a Nazi mayor
in 1929; accordingly, Jews were relentlessly persecuted in
the town. In 1932, the authorities gave the order to convert
the synagogue back into a church, a decision that the Jewish
community unsuccessfully appealed.
In 1933, the community still maintained numerous
associations and branches of nationwide Jewish organizations.
That same year, 30 children studied religion in Coburg. In
March of 1933, police closed down the synagogue, after
which (in May) a prayer hall was established in Rabbi Hirsch’s
home on Hohe Strasse. In 1935, when Jewish pupils were
expelled from German schools, the Jewish boarding school
took in all of the community’s schoolchildren.
On Pogrom Night, the prayer room and its ritual objects
were destroyed; Torah scrolls were burned. Jewish pupils were forced to smash the school’s windows, and Jewish
homes and stores were damaged. All Jews, including women
and children, were arrested; men under the age of 60 were
imprisoned in Hof.
Eighty-five Coburg Jews emigrated and 61 relocated
within Germany. Twenty-five died in Coburg, some of whom
took their own lives. The remaining Jews were forced into two
houses and, in 1941/42, deported to Riga, Theresienstadt
and Izbica. At least 78 Coburg Jews perished in the Shoah.
A memorial commemorating the town’s Shoah victims
was later unveiled at the Jewish cemetery.
Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: AJ, CJGS, DJGB, EJL, SIA, SZJLB
Sources: AJ, CJGS, DJGB, EJL, SIA, SZJLB
Located in: bavaria