Gera
General information: First Jewish presence: mid-1300s; peak Jewish population: 510 in 1925; Jewish population in 1933: 378
Summary: Jews lived in Gera sporadically during the 14th and 15th
centuries. Expelled from the town in the mid-1400s, they
did not return until 1880. The modern community, formed
in 1885, established and maintained a small prayer room.
With an influx of Jews from Poland, Gera’s Jewish
population reached 510 by 1925. The Jews of Gera were
mainly involved in commerce; Hermann Tietz, a Polish
Jew, founded a small department store that would become
a nation-wide chain.
Looking for ways to accommodate the growing congregation,
the Jewish community convinced the owners of the prestigious
Hotel Kronprinz to allow them to build an extension to the
hotel that would serve as a synagogue. The owners agreed, and
the new synagogue was inaugurated in 1919. The Orthodox
Jewish community maintained its own synagogue.
Many local Jews emigrated from Germany after the 1933
elections. The two synagogues were vandalized on Pogrom
Night, but it was the Orthodox house of worship that was
burned down. For obvious reasons, the SS decided to spare the
hotel synagogue, choosing, instead, to burn its ritual objects on
the street. The hotel was later destroyed during a bombing raid.
A memorial plaque has been unveiled at the synagogue
and hotel site.
Author / Sources: Moshe Finkel
Sources: DJKT, EJL, LJG, SIA
Sources: DJKT, EJL, LJG, SIA
Located in: thuringia