Ibbenbüren

Summary: Members of Ibbenbueren’s 19th-century Jewish community were mainly artisans, merchants or butchers. A synagogue was in use by 1846, and the community consecrated a new house of worship in 1913. Ibbenbueren was home to a Jewish school from 1838 until 1853. In 1933, 12 Jewish families lived in Ibbenbueren. Between 1933 and October 1938, seven Jews immigrated to the Netherlands and seven relocated to other German towns. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue was burned down, Jewish homes were vandalized and Jewish men were assaulted, after which 20 Jews left the town. In 1942, the remaining three Jewish families (eight Jews) were deported to the East, where all of them perished. In 1983, a memorial plaque bearing a verse by Jewish poet Nelly Sachs was unveiled at the former synagogue site. A section of the street was renamed “Synagogenstrasse” (“Synagogue Street”) in 1985.

Author / Sources: Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
Sources: AH, EJL, LJG, SIA, YV