Wangen
General information: First Jewish presence: 17th century; peak Jewish population: 233 in 1864; Jewish population in 1933: 20
Summary: Wangen’s first documented Jew, Baruch Moises Ainstein, was
an ancestor of Albert Einstein’s. The Wangen Jews established
the following institutions: a small wooden synagogue (with
22 seats for men) and mikveh next to Lake Constance in
1750; an additional prayer hall (set up in the community
leader’s home) in 1783; a new synagogue in 1825/1826; and,
finally, a cemetery on Gewann Am Hardtbuehl in 1827.
Jewish schoolchildren attended the community’s elementary
school until 1870, when all confessional schools in Baden
were closed, after which local Jews employed a teacher of
religion who also functioned as a chazzan and shochet.
By the 1920s, the community had dwindled to such an extent
that regular services were no longer held in the synagogue. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue was burned down; six Jews were
brutally assaulted, and the cemetery was desecrated.
Six local Jews emigrated, three relocated within Germany, five
died in Wangen and seven were deported to Gurs on October
22, 1940. At least six Wangen Jews died in the Shoah.
The synagogue site—it was transferred to the municipality
in 1945—is now a camp site; in 1968, a memorial stone was
unveiled there. The cemetery was vandalized in 1992.
Photo: View of the Torah Ark in the synagogue of Wangen before 1938. Courtesy of: Photo Archive of the Jacob Picard Memorial, Oehningen- Wangen.
Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AH, AJ, EJL, HU, PK BW
Sources: AH, AJ, EJL, HU, PK BW
Located in: baden-wuerttemberg