Haren on Ems
General information: First Jewish presence: 1766; peak Jewish population: 37 in 1885 (6.2% of the total population); Jewish population in 1933: 28
Summary:
Although the Jews of Haren on Ems established a place of
worship in the Meyering family home in 1810, they often
found it difficult to gather a minyan. A teacher was hired
in 1825, but paltry enrollment numbers convinced the
community, in 1832, to send its children to the general
school; nevertheless, teachers of religious studies (they were
usually from Meppen) instructed Jewish children from 1883
until 1930. Although we do not know when Haren’s old
Jewish cemetery was established—the records indicate an
early date—we know for certain that it was replaced by a
new cemetery (located north of the town) in 1907, soon
after which, in June of 1909, a synagogue was inaugurated
on Zum Pascheberg. The provincial rabbinate was in Emden.
On Pogrom Night in November 1938, SA troops and the
district’s Nazi leader broke into the synagogue and set it on
fire; they then proceeded to ransack Jewish businesses and
private property. Jewish men were arrested and interned in
Sachsenhausen for several weeks.
By the end of 1938, six more Jews had left Haren, of
whom five relocated to other places in Germany. Nineteen
Jews still lived in Haren in 1939; six were sent to Riga in
1941; and five were moved into a “Jews’ house” in Lingen,
from which they were deported to a concentration camp.
In all, six local Jews managed to emigrate after 1933 (three
to the United States and three to Argentina). We do not
know how many local Jews perished in Auschwitz and the
concentration camps.
A Lutheran church was later built on the former
synagogue site. Memorials were unveiled there and at the
Jewish cemetery in 1981 and 1988, respectively. Memorial
“stumbling stones” commemorate 22 former Jewish residents
of Haren on Ems.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: HH, PK
Sources: HH, PK
Located in: lower-saxony