Huettenheim

General information: First Jewish presence: 1498; peak Jewish population: 173 in 1812 (20% of the total population); Jewish population in 1933: 23
Summary: Huettenheim was home to a synagogue as early as 1565. In 1662, a house (it contained a mikveh) was built for a chazzan who also served as teacher and shochet. The community established a new synagogue in 1754 (near the chazzan’s home) and a regional cemetery in 1816. In 1933, a teacher from Kitzingen instructed one child in religion; a chevra kadisha was active in the community. In the fall of that year, Jews who were not residents of Huettenheim were forbidden from entering the village. The Jewish cemetery was desecrated in 1935. On Pogrom Night, rioters destroyed the synagogue’s furniture and ritual objects. Nineteen Jews left Huettenheim between the years 1933 and 1939. One was arrested in July 1940, and deported to Sachsenhausen; three were deported to Izbica in March 1942; and two, the last, were deported to Theresienstadt, via Wuerzburg, in September 1942. At least nine Huettenheim Jews perished in the Shoah. After the war, the synagogue was used as a refugee shelter and, later, as a storehouse. In 1996, a family bought the synagogue and the chazzan’s house and converted both into residential properties. A commemorative plaque was later affixed to the former synagogue. The destroyed cemetery, restored in 1950, houses a memorial monument.
Author / Sources: Yaakov Borut
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK BAV
www.willanzheim.de/
Located in: bavaria