Thalmaessing
General information: First Jewish presence: mid-15th century; peak Jewish population: 227 in 1743; Jewish population in 1933: 33
Summary: Thalmaessing was home to one of the most important and
affluent Jewish communities in the Ansbach princedom.
The community established a synagogue on the corner
of Ringstrasse and Merleingasse in 1690; a cemetery near
Bachstrasse in 1832; a building for the community’s Jewish
school (at 10 Schulgasse, or “school alley”) in 1840; and a
new synagogue in 1857/58. Local Jews also maintained a
mikveh.
Five Jewish children studied religion with the teacher/
chazzan in 1933. A women’s association and a chevra kadisha
were active in Thalmaessing that year.
In 1937, when the community was officially dissolved,
Thalmaessing’s synagogue closed down; its ritual objects and
Torah scrolls were transferred to the association of Bavarian
Jewish communities in Munich. The municipality eventually
appropriated the Thalmaessing school building.
On Pogrom Night, the synagogue’s interior and its
furnishings and remaining ritual objects were destroyed.
Thirteen Thalmaessing Jews emigrated and 20 relocated
within Germany. By May 1939, all Jewish residents had left
Thalmaessing. At least 34 local Jews perished in the Shoah.
In 1945, a U.S. soldier, son of a former local Jew, forced
Nazi party members to restore the damaged Jewish cemetery.
The synagogue, later used as a silo and then as a gym, was demolished in 1970/73 to make room for an apartment
building. A memorial plaque has been unveiled near the
synagogue site.
Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: AJ, DJGB, EJL, PK-BAV, SZJLB
Sources: AJ, DJGB, EJL, PK-BAV, SZJLB
Located in: bavaria