Leiwen
General information: First Jewish presence: 1592; peak Jewish population: 61 in 1930; Jewish population in 1933: 45
Summary: The modern Jewish community of Leiwen conducted
services in a prayer room on the corner of Bahnhofstrasse
and Hannagass (later renamed Euchariusstrasse and
Laurentiusstrasse, respectively) until 1913, when a
synagogue was inaugurated on Roemerstrasse. Local Jews
also maintained a mikveh and a school for religious studies,
the latter of which was presided over by a teacher who
performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. Records do
not tell us when the community consecrated its cemetery,
but the oldest gravestones are dated 1863.
By 1933, the Jews of nearby Loesnich and Kluesserath had
been affiliated with the Leiwen community. Later, in 1937,
vandals smashed windows on the synagogue’s left side and
cut down several decorative trees.
On Pogrom Night, SA men and local members of the
Nazi party ransacked Leiwen’s synagogue and chased local
Jews to the banks of the Mosel River, where they forced the
Jews to burn the synagogue’s Torah scrolls and ritual objects.
The homes of the village’s 11 remaining Jews were ransacked,
after which all Jews left Leiwen. The Jewish cemetery was partially destroyed during the
Nazi period. At least 32 Leiwen Jews perished in the Shoah.
The synagogue, which the Nazis appropriated after
Pogrom Night, served as a kindergarten and later, as a
detention center for French POWs. Sold to a wine firm after
1945 and used for a while as a storage site, the building was eventually demolished. A memorial plaque has been unveiled
at the renovated cemetery.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL, FJW
Sources: AJ, EJL, FJW
Located in: rhineland-palatinate