Anhausen

First Jewish presence: 1725; peak Jewish population: 52 in 1858 or 60 in 1860 (sources differ); Jewish population in 1933: 10

The first indication of a Jewish presence in Anhausen, a gravestone in the Jewish cemetery of Neuwied-Niederbieber, is dated 1725. According to the records, three Schutzjuden (“protected Jews”) lived in Anhausen in 1775 and 1778. The Jewish community recorded its peak membership in the mid-19th century, but during the following decades—as a result of local Jews moving to larger cities—the community lost most of its members. In the 1880s, prior to which local Jews may have held services in prayer rooms, a synagogue was built on Hohlstrasse; the Tobias family owned this house of worship for several generations. Other communal institutions included a mikveh, a school for religious studies and a Jewish cemetery, the last of which was located in Neuwied- Niederbieber. The synagogue’s windows and door were destroyed in 1933, at which point only 10 Jews still lived in Anhausen. Although the synagogue was sold to the municipality in 1938, rioters nevertheless destroyed the building on Pogrom Night and forced the few remaining Jews to spend the night there. In July 1942, Samuel Kahn, Anhausen’s last Jew, was deported. Sixteen Anhausen Jews were killed in the Shoah. A memorial stone was unveiled at the former synagogue site in 1988.

Benjamin Rosendahl

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

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