Bausendorf

General information: First Jewish presence: 1794; peak Jewish population 46 in 1895; Jewish population in 1933: 33
Summary: Very little is known about the history of Jewish Bausendorf. The earliest available records tell us that 13 Jews lived there in 1808, after which the Jewish population experienced modest growth (46 Jews, the peak population, in 1895). Nevertheless, the community managed to build a synagogue, consecrate a cemetery and found a school. The modest synagogue, which was built and inaugurated in 1880, also housed classrooms where Jewish children studied religion; in 1931, classes were discontinued as a result of insufficient enrolment numbers. By 1934, as a direct result of the Nazis’ anti-Jewish boycott, Bausendorf ’s Jewish population had dropped to below 20. Accordingly, synagogue services were discontinued. We know very little about what happened in Bausendorf on Pogrom Night, but the records do tell us that the synagogue was defaced and vandalized. The abandoned building was torn down in 1961. As of this writing, a memorial has never been erected in Bausendorf.
Author / Sources: Moshe Finkel; Sources: AJ, EJL, SG-RPS