Heiligenstadt-Eichsfeld
General information: First Jewish presence: 1212; peak Jewish population: 107 in 1882; Jewish population in 1933: 34
Summary:
Jews settled in Heiligenstadt-Eichsfeld in the early 13th
century but were later expelled. The arrival of Jews in the
late 1700s marked the beginning of an unbroken Jewish
presence that would last until 1940.
Until 1774, the poverty-stricken Jewish community
conducted services in a small, overcrowded prayer room. In
order to accommodate the growing Jewish population, the
community, with its limited funds, purchased a building and
converted it into a synagogue; inaugurated in 1872, it housed
a classroom used by a teacher who also served as shochet.
Although the synagogue was set on fire on Pogrom Night,
the fire department quickly extinguished the blaze due to the
building’s proximity to other houses. The exterior, therefore,
remained intact. The building was later converted into an
apartment block. A memorial plaque has been affixed to the former
synagogue building; it commemorates the Jewish community
that was destroyed, but does not mention the fact that the
building was once a synagogue.
Author / Sources: Moshe Finkel
Sources: DJKT, EJL, LJG, SIA
Sources: DJKT, EJL, LJG, SIA
Located in: thuringia