Frankenberg

Summary: The modern Jewish community of Frankenberg traced its roots to the late 17th century. A Jewish elementary school was established in a building on Am Scharwinkel in 1831, after which, in 1838, an Orthodox synagogue (100 seats) was inaugurated there. According to records, local Jews consecrated a cemetery in the 1860s. We also know that a new school—it housed an apartment for the teacher—was established in Frankenberg in 1913; Ferdinand Stern served as teacher from 1914 until 1939, when the school closed down. Members of this community, which was affiliated with the congregation in Marburg, were mainly livestock traders and merchants. Jewish men and women’s associations were active in Frankenberg. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue and school were vandalized, all ritual objects were destroyed and Stern (the community’s last teacher) was arrested. Nearly half the Jewish population immigrated to the United States after 1933; others moved to Frankfurt am Main. In 1942, the remaining ten Jews were deported. At least eight Frankenberg Jews perished in the Shoah. The synagogue building was thoroughly renovated in the 1950s. Now a private residence, a memorial plaque was unveiled there in the late 1980s.

Author / Sources: Swetlana Frank
Sources: AJ, DJGH, EJL, FJG, LJG, SIA, SIH