Gross-Umstadt

Summary: The Jewish community of Gross-Umstadt, with which the Jews of Klein-Umstadt were affiliated, initially conducted services in a synagogue, whose date of construction is unknown. The building collapsed in 1866, and in 1874 the community inaugurated a new synagogue with seats for 45 men, a women’s gallery and a schoolroom. The Jewish school, established in 1825, was no longer in use by the early 1920s, by which point the community had hired a teacher of religion who also served as chazzan and shochet. The community was able to maintain its own mikveh, but conducted burials in Dieburg. In 1932, a teacher from Hoechst im Odenwald instructed six students in religion. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue was destroyed, Jewish homes were ransacked and Jews were abused. After the pogrom, the synagogue was sold to a local farmer for a mere 1,000 Reichsmarks. Twenty-one local Jews emigrated (11 went to the United States), 34 relocated within Germany and died in Gross- Umstadt. The town’s last Jews left in 1941; at least 35 local Jews perished in the Shoah. Although the synagogue was demolished in 1979, parts of it were transferred to the outdoor Hessenpark Museum in Anspach, were the synagogue was reconstructed. In 1984, a memorial was unveiled at the former synagogue site.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-HNF
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