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This project seeks to collect all of the Jewish families from the town of Essen (Nordrhein-Westfalen), Germany.
JewishGen-Essen (Nordrhein-Westfalen)
Information courtesy of various sources, including the following: Jewish community of Essen | Databases – ANU Museum of the Jewish People
https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e212028/Place/Essen
The Jewish Community of Essen
Essen
A city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
21ST CENTURY
The Old Synagogue (Alte Synagogue) serves as both a cultural center, and a memorial to Essen Jewry.
HISTORY
Jews are first mentioned as living in Essen in records dating from the 13th century. They were expelled in the wake of the Black Death epidemic (1348-1349), but were subsequently allowed to return to the city, and are listed in tax records dating from 1399.
Between 1545 and 1578 there were no Jews in Essen, and during the late 16th and early 17th centuries there were a number of disputes and laws passed regarding Jewish settlement, taxes, and trade.
A synagogue was built in Essen in 1683, and a cemetery was consecrated in 1716. During the 18th century there were several Jewish physicians living in the city.
The Jews of Essen were granted equal rights in the early 19th century, when the city was under French rule. According to records, local Jews participated in the revolution of 1848. As a result of the city’s tolerant atmosphere, the community grew rapidly: from 373 members in 1836 to 1,480 in 1895. It was in the late 19th century, too, that large numbers of Jews from Eastern Europe moved to Essen. Established in the late 17th century, the community’s first synagogue was located on Bergstrasse (present-day Im Zwoelfling). In 1808, a new synagogue was inaugurated on Weberstrasse (present-day Gerswidastrasse). A Moorish-style synagogue was built on the same site in 1870, and it was there that Jews prayed until 1913, when the community inaugurated yet another house of worship, the so-called “Old Synagogue,” at 29 Steeler Strasse. The Old Synagogue, a magnificent edifice with four cupolas, accommodated 1,400 worshipers, an organ, a women’s gallery, a mikveh and a weekday synagogue. Essen’s Jewish school, founded in 1830, was presided over by teacher Moses Blumenfeld between 1841 and 1894. The city was also home to three Jewish cemeteries: on Hoffnungsstrasse, or present-day Lazarettstrasse, between 1873 and 1923; on Reckhammerweg (1885-1991); and on Schultzstrasse/Parkfriedhof (1931 until today). Salomon Samuel served as rabbi from 1894 until 1932.
In 1933, 420 children attended the Jewish elementary school. Active in the community were a Talmud Torah, a Hebrew school, a literary club and nine welfare organizations. The defunct synagogue building on Weberstrasse was torn down in 1937. After the Nazis’ election victories, anti-Semitism intensified in Essen. Local Jews were often arrested, and Jewish-owned shops were, beginning in April of 1933, boycotted. In October 1938, between 450 and 570 Polish Jews were expelled from Essen. On Pogrom Night, rioters set the Old Synagogue on fire, gutting the interior; a youth center and an Eastern European prayer hall were also burned down. Jewish homes and stores were vandalized, and approximately 700 men were sent to Dachau; most were released in February 1939. Between 1933 and 1941, the community lost 60% of its members, all of whom left Germany. Deportations commenced in late 1941, and in May 1942, the remaining Jews were forcibly moved to the Holbeckshof camp in Essen- Steele. At least 2,500 Essen Jews perished in the Shoah. Approximately 100 survivors returned to Essen after the war. A new synagogue was inaugurated on Sedanstrasse in 1959; and in November 1980, the Old Synagogue, to which a plaque has been affixed, was converted into an archive and memorial center. Plaques were also unveiled at the central train station and on Aronweg/Holbeckshof.
POSTWAR
A community was reestablished in 1959.
In 1970 there were 170 Jews living in Essen (0.03% of the total population). A new synagogue was built that year.
The Old Essen Synagogue reopened in 1980 as a museum of the history of the Jews of Essen.
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This entry incorporates materials 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.
Place Type: עיר ID Number: 212028
Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People
Also cf. eg.
Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database -- GESCHICHTE UND SCHICKSAL DER ESSENER JUDEN : GEDENKBUCH FÜR DIE JÜDISCHEN MITBÜRGER DER STADT ESSEN / von Hermann Schröter ; herausgegeben
https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/source_view.php?SourceId=31052
And information on/databank for old Jewish Cemetery - Segerothfriedhof, Essen - to be found here:
http://www.steinheim-institut.de/cgi-bin/epidat?id=seg&lang=de
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