Trier

Summary: The first explicit written reference to the Jews of Trier is dated 1066. The community, one of the most important during the Middle Ages, was home to many prominent rabbis and scholars. Local Jews initially lived in a Jewish quarter and maintained all the necessary communal institutions: a synagogue, a cemetery and a mikveh. The community was persecuted in 1096 (the First Crusade) and in 1348/49 (the Black Death pogroms), and expelled from the city in 1351 and again in 1418. Later, in the early 17th century, a new Jewish community was established there, but it, too, was persecuted during the anti-Jewish riots of 1675/76, during which time the synagogue was damaged. The Jews of Trier established several communal institutions during the ensuing centuries: a cemetery (in the 1650s); a synagogue (in 1762); a mikveh (in 1785); a new synagogue on Zuckerbergstrasse (in 1859); a Jewish elementary school (in 1825); and, finally, a new cemetery (in 1925). From the early 18th century onwards, Trier was the headquarters of a district rabbinate; Shemuel Levi Marx, grandfather of Karl Marx, served as district rabbi from 1804 until 1827. In 1879, Orthodox Jews founded their own Israelite Religious Association, after which they appointed their own rabbi. In 1882, the Orthodox community inaugurated a synagogue—it also maintained a prayer hall at 17 Nagelstrasse—and a school. Later, in 1891, the two religious factions (the Orthodox community and the mainstream community) agreed to hire one rabbi. Dr. Adolf Altmann was the community’s rabbi in 1933. Forty-nine pupils attended the Jewish elementary school that year, and several Jewish associations and branches of nation-wide organizations were active in the community. Jews were persecuted in Trier after the Nazis rose to power, but the community actually expanded its cultural and social activities during the years leading up to Pogrom Night (November 1938), when the synagogue was burned together with its 24 Torah scrolls. Jewish homes and businesses were vandalized that night, and more than 100 men were arrested and held at the local prison for a month. Rabbi Altmann immigrated to the Netherlands at some point after the pogrom, from where he was later deported to Auschwitz and murdered. Trier’s Jewish school closed down in 1941. In October 1941, 100 local Jews were deported to the Lodz ghetto; in 1942, 98 were deported to the Lublin district, to Auschwitz and to Theresienstadt and, in March 1943, 91 were deported to unknown destinations. Several Jews, all of whom were married to Christians, survived the war in Trier. At least 394 Trier Jews perished in the Shoah. The new Jewish community of Trier, founded in 1945, inaugurated a new synagogue (at 25 Kaiserstrasse) in 1957. A city street was named after Rabbi Altmann in 1958, and several memorial plaques have been unveiled in honor of Trier’s Shoah victims.

Author / Sources: Nurit Borut
Sources: AJ, EJL, EUJST