Giebelstadt

Summary: The Jews of Giebelstadt conducted services in a prayer room until 1799, when the community dedicated its first synagogue. In 1911, a new synagogue was opened at 20, Mergentheimer Strasse. Local Jews maintained a mikveh and a Jewish school, the latter of which was presided over by a teacher who performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. We also know that burials took place in Allersheim. In 1933, three schoolchildren studied religion with a teacher from nearby Gaukoenigshofen. By 1937, one-third of Giebelstadt’s Jews were receiving welfare. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue’s interior and ritual objects were destroyed. Jewish homes were attacked, a Jewish man was beaten and arrested and another was paraded around neighboring communities on an open-top truck. The synagogue building was demolished in the summer of 1939. Sixteen Giebelstadt Jews emigrated and 11 relocated within Germany. In March 1942, the village’s remaining five Jews were sent to Kitzingen; and in April of that year, they were deported, via Wuerzburg, to Izbica. At least 19 Giebelstadt Jews perished in the Shoah. Between 1945 and 1949, approximately 1,700 displaced persons lived in Giebelstadt (most of them in a DP camp). Their synagogue (at 31 Mergentheimer Strasse) was later converted into a residential building. A memorial plaque was later unveiled in the municipality’s headquarters.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK BAV