Luedinghausen

Summary: The Jewish community of Luedinghausen, established in 1856, served as the central community for all the nearby Jewish settlements (although many maintained their own synagogues and cemeteries) until that arrangement was ended in 1919. In Luedinghausen prayer services were conducted in the Auerbach family home until 1827, when the family joined Jakob Adler in building a proper synagogue (it also housed a schoolroom and an apartment for a teacher). From 1834 until 1836, and again from 1864 until 1873, the community ran an elementary school. In October 1938, shortly before Pogrom Night, the wardens of the synagogue were arrested and its plot of land confiscated. The synagogue was destroyed on November 10, but it was not until 1960 that its ruins were cleared. Those Jews who remained in Luedinghausen after the pogrom were eventually deported, some to Riga in 1941, the others to Theresienstadt in 1942. A memorial tablet lists their names.

Author / Sources: Harold Slutzkin
Sources: LJG, SG-NRW