Herxheim
General information: First Jewish presence: 1681; peak Jewish population: 162 in 1848; Jewish population in 1933: approximately 19
Summary: The Jews of Herxheim conducted services in a prayer room
on Holzgasse until 1797, when they established a synagogue
and a school in an existing building located on what would later become the Judengasse (“Jews’ alley”). In 1842, a larger
synagogue was built at 18 Obere Hauptstrasse; adjoining the
new synagogue, at the front were a school and an apartment
for the teacher. The building was partially renovated at
the end of the 19th century; in 1923/24, the school and
apartment were converted into a residential property. We
also know that the community consecrated a cemetery in
the 1870s.
In 1933, Herxheim’s Jewish schoolchildren received
religious instruction in Landau.
On Pogrom Night, rioters used an axe to destroy the
synagogue’s interior. Furniture, ritual objects and holy books
were stacked up and burned, but neighboring residents,
fearing for the safety of their own homes, prevented the
incineration of the synagogue. Approximately 50 people
plundered the building. After the pogrom, Herxheim’s
local authorities seized the synagogue site as “payment” for
demolishing the ruins. The Jewish cemetery was cleared and
leveled during the Nazi period, its gravestones used to pave
a road.
Herxheim’s last Jews left in September 1939. At least three
local Jews perished in the Shoah.
The cemetery was converted into a park after the war, and
a memorial stone was later unveiled there. The school and the
teacher’s apartment survived the pogrom and, until 1959,
functioned as Herxheim’s municipal hall (this building was
demolished in 1993). In 1984, an ornamental stone from
the original synagogue was unveiled as a memorial on the
former synagogue’s site.
Photo: The synagogue of Herxheim; probably in the 1920s. Courtesy of: Joanne Barson nee Rosenthal, South Africa/Egon Ehmer, Moerzheim.
Author / Sources: Bronagh Bowerman
Sources: AJ, SG-RPS, SIA, YV
www.herxheim-pfalz.de
Sources: AJ, SG-RPS, SIA, YV
www.herxheim-pfalz.de
Located in: north-rhine-westphalia