Allendorf on Lumda

Summary: A Jewish presence was first recorded in Allendorf in 1770. By 1838, a community had been founded there. In 1844, the community replaced its prayer room with a synagogue at 3 Nordecker Strasse; the building probably housed a schoolroom and an apartment for a teacher, who also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. Local Jews also maintained a mikveh and, beginning in the late 19th century, a cemetery. Although the synagogue was sold in 1938, its interior was destroyed on Pogrom Night, when ritual objects and furniture were burned in one of the town’s squares. That night, SA men and local residents destroyed the interiors of Jewish apartments with axes. Seventeen Jews immigrated (12 to the United States), 14 relocated within Germany, five moved to unknown destinations and three died in Allendorf. In September 1942, 26 Jews, Allendorf ’s last, were deported: 21 to Poland, five to Theresienstadt. At least 47 Allendorf Jews perished in the Shoah. The synagogue has since been remodeled into a residential building, to which a memorial plaque was affixed in 1982. A memorial stone was unveiled at the cemetery in 1988, and in 2002 a memorial monument made of Jerusalem stone was erected in Allendorf.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans; Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-HNF www.allendorf-lda.de, www.kirche-allendorf.de