Neustadt am Ruebenberge
General information: First Jewish presence: 1792 (four families); peak Jewish population: 100 in 1871; Jewish population in 1933: 42
Summary: In 1824, by which point Neustadt am Ruebenberge was
home to a synagogue on Mittelstrasse, the Jewish community
appointed Samuel Hirsch as chairman and an unidentified
man as teacher, chazzan and shochet.
Although the Jewish cemetery had been consecrated in
1804, its earliest extant gravestone is dated March 5, 1844.
The Jewish public school closed down on January 4, 1910,
and we also know that an itinerant teacher named Weinberg,
of Wunstdorf, instructed children in religion during the years
1913 (seven children) to 1924 (eight children). Neustadt
am Ruebenberge belonged to the provincial rabbinate of
Hannover.
From 1933 until Pogrom Night, 25 Jews left Neustadt am
Ruebenberge (only one family emigrated). On November 9,
1938, SA men smashed the synagogue’s windows, destroyed
its interior and demolished the roof, after which they wrapped
the community’s hearse in a Torah scroll and positioned it
opposite the residence of the Jewish Meinrath family, where
it was set on fire the following day. Jewish-owned homes and
businesses were ransacked, and property was confiscated.
On December 2, 1938, Meinrath’s bank was expropriated
by the Baebenroth bank. Later, on June 25, 1939, by which
point the Jewish population had dwindled to four, the
synagogue building and site were sold to a locksmith.
Of the 42 Jews living in Neustadt am Ruebenberge in
1933, 21 perished in the Shoah. Nine local Jews emigrated,
but the fate of 11 is unknown. Else Fritsche was deported to
Theresienstadt on February 19, 1945; an ordeal she survived.
The synagogue building was torn down in the early 1950s;
a memorial plaque was erected on the site in November 1985.
At the Jewish cemetery, in which 61 stones are still intact (a burial took place there as late as 1998), a memorial stone
was unveiled in 1968; the cemetery was vandalized in 1956,
1967 and again in 1986.
Photo: A parade in front the Jewish community building in Neustadt am Ruebeberge in 1906. Courtesy of: City Archive of Neustadt am Ruebeberge.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: HH, HU, PK
ak-regionalgeschichte.de
www.myheimat.de/coelbe/profil/10812/beate-shumate/
Sources: HH, HU, PK
ak-regionalgeschichte.de
www.myheimat.de/coelbe/profil/10812/beate-shumate/
Located in: lower-saxony