Lampertheim

Summary: Jews in Lampertheim conducted services in a prayer room, located in a private house, until 1851, when the community built a synagogue at 95-97, Roemerstrasse (with 92 seats for men, 55 for women); the building was renovated in 1896 and in 1926. Beginning in 1767, the community employed a teacher of religion who also functioned as chazzan and shochet. The Jews of Lampertheim maintained a mikveh and, after 1869, a cemetery. (Prior to that, burials took place in Hembach.) In 1933, a 13-year-old Jewish girl was arrested after being informed on by a classmate; the teacher who prevented the Gestapo from taking her to headquarters was later fired. In March 1938, a local Jewish woman died at the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. Later that year, on Pogrom Night, the synagogue was burned down; Jewishowned homes and businesses were plundered, and Jewish men were arrested and sent to Buchenwald, where one was killed. Lampertheim’s remaining nine Jews were deported to the East in 1942, three of them to Auschwitz. At least 43 local Jews perished in the Shoah. In 1946, approximately 4,000 displaced persons established a new community in Lampertheim; most, however, left for Israel after 1948. A commercial building, to which a commemorative plaque has been affixed, was built on the former synagogue site in 1992. A memorial was also unveiled at the cemetery.

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