Hermeskeil

First Jewish presence: 1840; peak Jewish population: 45 in 1925; Jewish population in 1933: 40-49

Jews lived in Hermeskeil in the late 19th century. Records indicate that they conducted services in a prayer room (located in a private residence) before they established a synagogue. The synagogue, which was located on Damfloser Weg (later renamed Martinusstrasse), housed a prayer hall on its upper floor and an apartment for the teacher—who also served as chazzan and shochet—on the lower floor. The community consecrated a Jewish cemetery on Zuescher Strasse in 1880. In July 1929, two headstones were vandalized; and in October of the same year, all of the headstones were destroyed. In 1933, a women’s association was active in the community, and three Jewish children studied religion with a teacher from Schweich. Later, in 1936, the windows of five Jewish-owned homes and businesses were smashed. On Pogrom Night, rioters wrecked the synagogue’s interior and stole the Torah scrolls; the building was set on fire, but a neighboring resident extinguished the blaze. Ten Jewish houses were vandalized. Eleven Jews stayed in Hermeskeil after 1938, some of whom eventually immigrated to the United States and to Palestine. Those who remained were deported to the East. At least 12 Hermeskeil Jews perished in the Shoah. The synagogue was destroyed during an air raid in March 1945. A residential and commercial property was later built on its site. In November 1978, a commemorative plaque was unveiled there; the Jewish cemetery houses a memorial stone.

Bronagh Bowerman

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

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