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
Sources: AJ, EJ, PK-BW
www.mahnung-gegen-rechts.de
www.stadtarchiv-heilbronn.de
Located in: baden-wuerttemberg