Meppen

First Jewish presence: unknown; peak Jewish population: 95 in 1871; Jewish population in 1933: 49

The earliest available record of a Jewish presence in Meppen mentions Fiebelmann Susmann of Haltern. In 1849, the Jews of Meppen inaugurated a synagogue on Nagelshof (later, 17, Nagelshof ), in the back of which they built a classroom and an apartment for a teacher. The first teacher was hired in 1816, and we also know that Meppen was home to a Jewish school from the year 1851 until (approximately) 1921. Records from 1896 and 1901 mention a Talmud Torah school; after 1860, the community ran a Jewish sisterhood. By November 1938, 26 Jews had left town, seven of whom emigrated from Germany. On November 10, 1938, at four in the morning, an SA leader received orders to burn down the synagogue and arrest the remaining Jewish men, who were then interned in Sachsenhausen (one was sent to Buchenwald). Before being sent to Sachsenhausen, one of the men managed to save a Torah shield from the ashes; he brought it with him when he immigrated to California, where it is now on display in a synagogue. At least 12 Meppen Jews perished in the Shoah. A memorial stone was placed near the synagogue site—it now accommodates a residential building—in 1996. Meppen’s Jewish cemetery was vandalized in 1952 and again in 1987/88.

Esther Sarah Evans

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ Germansynagogues.com

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