Crumstadt

Summary: This community conducted services in a prayer room (located in a private house) until 1828, when a synagogue was inaugurated on 33 Walther Rathenau (formerly 33 Bismarck Strasse); the house of worship was enlarged in 1890 to accommodate 72 men and 32 women. Although the Jews of Crumstadt were able to maintain a mikveh and a Jewish school, the latter of which was presided over by a teacher, who also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet, they never consecrated their own cemetery, choosing, instead, to conduct burials in Gross Gerau and Alsbach. In 1933, six schoolchildren studied religion in Crumstadt, and two Jewish associations (one for men, the other for women) were active in the community. On Pogrom Night, members of the SS and SA heavily damaged the synagogue building; Jewish homes and properties were broken into, vandalized and plundered. The synagogue building was demolished shortly afterwards, the land sold to a neighboring resident for far less than its actual value.Twenty-three Crumstadt Jews emigrated; most of the others relocated within Germany. Five, the last, were deported to Poland and Theresienstadt in 1942. At least 24 Crumstadt Jews perished in the Shoah. After World War II, a barn and stables were built on the former synagogue site. In 1988, a memorial stone was unveiled in Crumstadt.

Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AH, AJ, EJL, PK-HNF
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