Twistringen
General information: First Jewish presence: 1730; peak Jewish population: 40 in 1858; Jewish population in 1933: unknown
Summary: Twistringen’s synagogue association, which included the Jews
living in nearby Heiligenloh and Ehrenburg, was established
in 1843. In 1845, the community acquired a building in
Twistringen in which it established a synagogue and a school, the latter of which had been operating at a different location
since 1830. We also know that this community maintained a
mikveh and, after 1789, a cemetery just north of Twistringen.
The Jewish school closed down in 1860, and although
another was established in 1888, it, too, closed down in 1904.
In 1907/08, Twistringen’s Jewish children studied religion in
Bassum with a teacher from Barenburg; later, they studied with
a teacher from Diepholz. In 1932, one local child received
religious instruction, then provided in Twistringen itself.
On the morning of November 10, 1938, male Jews were
arrested and imprisoned in the fire department’s building.
Valuables were stolen from Jewish homes and documents
pertaining to the community, placed in the kosher butcher’s
home for safekeeping, were confiscated. SA men then set fire
to the synagogue. Several Jewish men were transferred to the
prison in Hanover and, later, to Buchenwald, from where
they were released in late November 1938.
Eight Jews lived in Twistringen in 1939. In 1941, the few
who remained were made participate in forced labor. Then
began the deportations to Minsk, Warsaw, Auschwitz and
Riga; records suggest that the last deportation was that of
Alma and Sophie Goldberg in 1943. At least 20 Twistringen
Jews perished in the Shoah.
In May 1985, a memorial stone was unveiled on
Bachstrasse, near the former synagogue site.
Photo: The synagogue of Twistringen in the spring of 1938. Courtesy of: Town Archive of Twistringen.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: EJL, JGNB, LJG
Sources: EJL, JGNB, LJG
Located in: lower-saxony