Linz am Rhein
General information: First Jewish presence: 1219 or 1222; peak Jewish population: 142 in 1892/93; Jewish population in 1933: 64
Summary: The Jewish community of Linz, formed in the late 16th century,
consecrated a synagogue in the early 17th century; a prayer
room in 1763; a new synagogue, on Auf dem Berg, in 1851; a
cemetery in 1854; and a mikveh on an unspecified date.
The community center at 20, Neustrasse (1841) housed
a private Jewish school. Classified as a Jewish elementary
school in 1881, the school was presided over by a teacher
who also served as chazzan and shochet. By 1911, the school
was offering religious instruction only, as a result of which
lessons were conducted in the teacher’s apartment.
In 1933, nine Jewish children received religious
instruction in Linz. Several Jewish associations—a women’s
group, charities, and a society for the study of Jewish
literature—were active in the community, to which the
Jews of Unkel and Rheinbreitbach had been affiliated. The
community center was sold in 1936.
On Pogrom Night, rioters destroyed the interior of the
synagogue and the village’s seven remaining Jewish homes.
Later, in September 1940, the remaining Jews were forced
to move into a few Jewish-owned houses. Twelve Linz Jews
were deported to the East in March 1942, and seven were
sent to Theresienstadt in July of the same year. At least 57
Jews originally from Linz, four from Unkel and 15 from
Rheinbreitbach perished in the Shoah.
Linz’s former synagogue, later used as a warehouse, was
converted into a residential building in the mid-1980s. A
memorial plaque was affixed to the building in 1992.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL
Sources: AJ, EJL
Located in: rhineland-palatinate