First Jewish presence: 1722; peak Jewish population: 44 in 1848; Jewish population in 1933: 25

The earliest record of a Jewish presence in Schwegenheim, dated 1722, mentions a Jewish family. Membership of the Schwegenheim Jewish community, with which the Jews of Weingarten were affiliated, peaked at 44 persons in 1848. In 1834, the community built a synagogue at 179 Hauptstrasse. Burials were initially conducted in Kirchgarten, in Essingen from 1800 until 1816 and, finally, in Oberlustadt. The community, however, was able to employ its own teacher/chazzan. In 1933, there were 25 Jews in Schwegenheim and four in each the affiliated communities of Weingarten and Ungenfeld. On Pogrom Night, Schwegenheim’s synagogue was heavily vandalized. Later, on October 22, 1940, the remaining six Jews were deported to Gurs, France. At least 13 former Jewish residents of Schwegenheim perished in the Shoah.
Esther Sarah Evans
Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ germansynagogues.bh.org.il

Notes

Sources: Alemannia Judaica, www.alemannia-judaica.de The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Shmuel Spector [Ed.], [publisher] Yad Vashem and the New York University Press, 2001., “und dies ist die Pforte des Himmels”: Synagogen Rheinland-Pfalz/Saarland, Will Schmid, Stefan Fischbach and Ingrid Westerhoff [Eds.], publication initiated by Joachim Glatz and Meier Schwarz, [publisher] Phillipp Von Zabern, 2005., Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Entrance

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