Weilerswist
General information: First Jewish presence: 1650; peak Jewish population: 54 in 1869; Jewish population in 1933: 24
Summary: In 1848, a Jewish community was officially founded in
Weilerswist as an affiliate of the regional congregation of
Euskirchen. Services were conducted in a small prayer
room—the house was owned by Michael Kaufmann and
Simon Carl—until 1848, when the community built a
synagogue at 45 Hauptstrasse (present-day Koelner Strasse);
the new synagogue seated 28 men and 18 women. A Jewish
cemetery was consecrated in Weilerswist a few years before
the synagogue was opened.
On Pogrom Night, the synagogue was burned to the
ground in the presence of the fire brigade, whose members
were instructed to protect the surrounding buildings from
the blaze. The mob, consisting of local residents and people
who came from outside the village, plundered Jewish homes
and a shop owned by Willy Kain, who was detained at the
police station. (Extensive documentation is available on
court hearings related to thefts committed by villagers during
the pogrom.) In 1939, the municipality bought the former
synagogue site and sold it shortly thereafter.
At least 15 Jews from Weilerswist perished in the Shoah.
A memorial plaque was later affixed to the building that now
stands where the synagogue once did.
Author / Sources: Swetlana Frank
Sources: FJG, LJG, SIA, YV
www.hans-dieter-arntz.de/kristallnacht_weilerswist.html
Sources: FJG, LJG, SIA, YV
www.hans-dieter-arntz.de/kristallnacht_weilerswist.html
Located in: north-rhine-westphalia