Diez
General information: First Jewish presence: 13th century; peak Jewish population: 130 in 1895; Jewish population in 1933: 50
Summary:
Jews were persecuted in Diez during the Black Death
pogroms of 1348/49; it was not until 1643 that a new
Jewish presence was established there. The Jews of Diez
established the following communal institutions: a cemetery
in the 17th century; a synagogue in 1706; a new synagogue,
at 36 Altstadtstrasse, in 1760; another new synagogue, at
9 Kanalstrasse, in 1863; a Jewish orphanage—it had its own
synagogue and was located at 23 Schlossberg—in 1888; and
finally, a new cemetery in or around 1890. We also know
that the community maintained a mikveh, and that it hired
a teacher of religion who functioned as chazzan and shochet.
By 1933, the 26 Jews of Balduinstein, Birlenbach,
Freiendiez and Cramberg had been affiliated with the
community. Anti-Jewish demonstrations in 1935 forced the
management of the orphanage to evacuate the children living
there (50 in 1933), after which, in August of that year, the
municipality appropriated the building. Later, on Pogrom
Night (November 1938), the interior of the synagogue was
destroyed; one Jewish man was arrested. During the Nazi period, five Jews from Diez and its
affiliated communities emigrated and 63 relocated within
Germany. In May 1943, one elderly Jewish woman (the
only Jew who remained in Diez after 1939) was deported
to Auschwitz. At least 33 Diez Jews perished in the Shoah.
The old cemetery was destroyed by the Nazis; a governmental
building was erected on the site and the gravestones were used
in the construction of sidewalks. The synagogue—it had been
appropriated by the air corps after the pogrom—was demolished
in 1951. A memorial was erected on the site in 1986.
Author / Sources: Nurit Borut
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-HNF
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-HNF
Located in: rhineland-palatinate