Strausberg

Summary: The number of Jews permitted to reside in Strausberg was strictly limited by the Elector, but after 1670, when Brandenburg was suffering the effects of depopulation caused by the Thirty Years’ War, more Jews were allowed to settle in the town. A Jewish cemetery was consecrated in 1782, and religious services were held in private residences until 1817, when Strausberg’s small Jewish community built a synagogue and community center on Jungferstrasse. The synagogue was burned down on Pogrom Night (November 1938). Jewish homes and the cemetery were vandalized that same night, and Jewish men were arrested. By the early 1940s, only 23 Jews remained in Strausberg; of these, 15 were deported in 1941 and eight in 1942. Several Jews, protected by their marriages to Christians, survived the war in Strausberg. In 1997, plaques were unveiled in the town commemorating the Jewish cemetery and the former synagogue.

Author / Sources: Harold Slutzkin
Sources: EJL, LJG