Heilbronn

General information: First Jewish presence: 11th century; peak Jewish population: 994 in 1885; Jewish population in 1933: 790
Summary: A Jewish community existed in Heilbronn during the second half of the 11th century. Local Jews were persecuted in 1298 and annihilated in 1348/49. Although a new Jewish presence was established there in 1359, it was short-lived, for Jews were expelled from the city in 1476. The seeds of the modern community were planted in 1831, when a considerable number of Jews moved to Heilbronn, belonging, at first, to the Sontheim community. A community was officially founded in Heilbronn itself in 1864. synagogue from the 11th century burned down in 1349, and although a new house of worship was inaugurated in 1357, it was appropriated by the town after the aforementioned expulsion. The modern community established a prayer hall in 1857, a district rabbinate in 1867, a cemetery in 1867/68 and a synagogue in 1877. Heilbronn’s Orthodox Jews founded the Jeshurun congregation in 1910; the congregation—it employed its own rabbi—maintained a prayer room at 7 Uhlandstrasse (50 seats for men, 20 for women) and a mikveh, the latter of which was built in 1920. In 1933, Max Bermann was the district rabbi, and two teachers instructed 188 children in religion. The Jeshurun congregation employed its own teacher for the benefit of 17 children. Many Jewish associations and branches of national organizations were active in Heilbronn. That year, local SA troops became notorious for searching Jewish houses, arresting Jews and brutally assaulting Jewish men, as a result of which several died. In response to the segregation of Jewish and Christian pupils, the community opened a Jewish school in 1936. Nine Polish Jews were deported to Poland in October 1938. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue was burned down and the cemetery desecrated. The interior of the Orthodox prayer room was destroyed; Torah scrolls and prayer books were ripped into shreds. The community center, the school, the mikveh and Jewish properties were plundered, and all Jewish men (except the elderly) were sent to Dachau. The synagogue ruins were cleared in February/March 1940; and the Orthodox prayer hall was destroyed in 1944. Between 1933 and 1941, 633 Jews emigrated, others relocated within Germany, 90 died in Heilbronn and two committed suicide. The remaining Jews were forcibly moved into a few designated “Jews’ houses,” from which 32 were taken for forced labor and 138 were deported between November 1941 and February 1945. At least 235 Heilbronn Jews perished in the Shoah. Few Jews returned to Heilbronn after the war. The synagogue site was nevertheless rebuilt, and in 1966 a memorial stone was unveiled there; two memorials were also unveiled at the cemetery. The new Jewish community of Heilbronn, founded in 2003, established a prayer hall in 2005.
Photo: The synagogue of Heilbronn in or around the year 1900. Courtesy of: City Archive of Heilbronn.
Author / Sources: Magret Liat Wolf
Sources: AJ, EJ, PK-BW
www.mahnung-gegen-rechts.de
www.stadtarchiv-heilbronn.de
Located in: baden-wuerttemberg