Duelken
General information: First Jewish presence: 1340; peak Jewish population: 98 in 1843; Jewish population in 1933: 60
Summary:
A Jewish prayer room existed in Duelken as early as 1659.
Exactly one hundred years later, in 1759, Mr. Benjamin
Moyses purchased the building, enlarged it and converted
it into a proper synagogue. Moyses eventually donated that
synagogue to the Jewish community.
On June 10, 1898, the Jews of Duelken inaugurated a
new synagogue; the building also housed a mikveh, a school
and conference rooms.
On Pogrom Night, SA officers burned down the
synagogue, soon after which the rubble was removed and
the site sold. Thanks to a prior warning, however, the
Torah scrolls and other holy books had been removed from
the synagogue and hidden in a private residence. Shortly
before his deportation, Mr. Hermann Heymann, the Jewish
community’s last surviving committee member, deposited
the books with an Evangelist pastor for safekeeping. In
1948, the pastor gave the books to the newly formed Jewish
community of Krefeld; and in 1964, the Torah scrolls found
a home in Krefeld’s newly built synagogue.
As of this writing, no memorial has been erected in
Duelken.
Author / Sources: Moshe Finkel
Sources: EJL, SG-NRW, SIA
Sources: EJL, SG-NRW, SIA
Located in: north-rhine-westphalia