The Jewish Community of Esens

Lower Saxony

Niedersachsen

A Land (state) in northwest Germany bordering the North Sea. 

Wittmund

A town and capital of the district of Wittmund, in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Jewish presence in Wittmund is first mentioned in 1679 in connection with ben Isaac Bblitz, a Bible translator of the town, who printed a bible in Amsterdam. A Jewish school was mentioned in 1750 and in 1816 a synagogue was built. After the revolution of 1848, Jews took an active part in the communal life and became part of the “burgerwehr” (local civil guard) in 1852. In 1872 seventeen Jewish families were living in Wittmund. In 1911 the communal house for the poor was demolished and a new school was built in its place. The community had a circle for women and a “gemiluth hassadim” (charity society).

Some of the Jews living in Wittmund traded in textiles and had their own shops. In 1905 Moritz Neumark of Wittmund founded the furnace (“hochofenwerk”) in Luebeck and became its first manager.

In 1933 the Jewish community numbered 50 people.


The Holocaust

After the Pogrom Night (Nov. 9, 1938), the Jewish community was forced to sell its synagogue which was later demolished. Twenty of the members succeeded in emigrating to the united states. Many of those who remained in Wittmund were deported to Nazi death camps and died in Auschwitz and Sobibor. The Jewish community of Wittmund ceased to exist in 1940.

Norden

A town in the district of Aurich, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the North Sea shore, in East Frisia.

First Jewish presence: 1255; peak Jewish population: 329 in 1861; Jewish population in 1933: 204

In 1804, the Jewish community of Norden established a new synagogue on present-day 1 Synagogenweg (“synagogue road”); another building housed a school and a mikveh, the latter of which was located in the basement. After 1858, at the latest, Norden was home to a public Jewish school. The provincial rabbinate was in nearby Emden. By 1933, the Jewish communities of Hage, Marienhafe, Norderney and Upgant-Schott had been affiliated with Norden. Seventy Jews had left the town by November 1938. On Pogrom Night (Nov. 9, 1938), SA men set the synagogue on fire, after which they accused the teacher and synagogue caretaker of the crime; together with many other local Jews, both were arrested. The damage was estimated at 150,000 Reichsmarks. Sixty-six Jews immigrated to safe locations. At least 94 perished in the ghettos and concentration camps of Eastern Europe, among them some who had fled to the Netherlands. Three Norden Jews committed suicide. Three Jewish survivors (two women and one man) returned to Norden after the war, at which point the synagogue was being used as a garage. A memorial was erected on the site in 1987. The cemetery—it was enlarged after the Shoah—was desecrated in 1978 and again in 1981.

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This entry was originally published on Beit Ashkenaz - Destroyed German Synagogues and Communities website and contributed to the Database of the Museum of the Jewish People courtesy of Beit Ashkenaz.

Aurich

A town near the river Ems in the district of East Frisia, Lower Saxony, Germany.

Jews from Italy first settled in Aurich apparently around 1378 following an invitation from the ruler of the region. This community came to an end in the 15th century. In 1592 two Jews were permitted to perform as musicians in the villages around Aurich. A new community was formed by 1647 when the court Jew Samson Kalman ben Abraham settled there. He was the court Jew of the Earl of east Frisia. Aurich was the seat of the "Landparnass" and "Landrabbiner" of east Friesland from 1686 until 1813, when they were transferred to Emden.

A cemetery was opened in Aurich in 1764; the synagogue was consecrated in 1811. Under Dutch rule (1807-1815) the Jews enjoyed the civil rights which they had lost in 1744 under Prussian rule.

By 1744 ten families had settled in Aurich. Their number increased steadily and by the time Napoleon granted full political and civil rights to the Jews of east Frisia (1808), Aurich had 16 Jewish families, who in total numbered 180 inhabitants. Their number increased to 600 by the end of the 19th century, about 8% of the total population. Due to the move out of the rural settlements caused by the industrialization, the number of Jewish inhabitants of Aurich decreased at the beginning of the 20th century.

Most of the Jews of Aurich traded in cattle, farm products and textiles. Others were butchers. They had considerable influence on the economic life of the town, for example no market day was held on the Sabbath. In 1933, the year of the Nazis' rise to power in Germany, the Jewish community of Aurich numbered 400 persons.

 

The Holocaust Period

Numerous Jews from Aurich were able to emigrate during the first years of the Nazi regime. After the invasion of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany, the remaining Jews of east Frisia were deported in 1940, among them were 140 Jews from Aurich. The Jewish community ceased to exist.

Jever

A town and the capital of the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony, Germany. 

First Jewish presence: 15th century; peak Jewish population: 219 in or around the year 1880; Jewish population in 1933: 98

By 1880, many Jever Jews has established themselves as cattle traders and merchants (of textiles and tobacco). According to records, the town was then home to a Jewish innkeeper and a Jewish farmer. In 1779, the community established a prayer room and a cemetery, the latter of which was located on the road to Cleverns and enlarged in 1841. (Burials were conducted in Neustadtgoedens before 1841.) Built in 1801 on Wasserpfortstrasse, the synagogue was replaced by a larger building in 1880. Jever’s Jewish schoolteacher also served as shochet and chazzan. The Jews of Jever maintained a women’s organization, a charity, a choir, a literary circle and a branch of the Zionist movement. Jewish homes and businesses were looted on Pogrom Night (Nov. 9, 1938), and 15 local Jews were deported to Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp; Jever’s Jewish cemetery was vandalized, and the synagogue was set on fire, after which the building burned down completely. Later, in 1939, the synagogue’s ruins were sold to a contractor and demolished. Several Jews returned to Jever after the war, and the cemetery was restored. Until 1951, a nearby displaced persons camp housed approximately 1,500 Jewish survivors of Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp. In 1950, a commercial building was erected on the former synagogue site; a memorial plaque was affixed to the structure in 1978. Between 63 and 77 Jever Jews were murdered in the Shoah

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This entry was originally published on Beit Ashkenaz - Destroyed German Synagogues and Communities website and contributed to the Database of the Museum of the Jewish People courtesy of Beit Ashkenaz.