Haren on Ems

General information: First Jewish presence: 1766; peak Jewish population: 37 in 1885 (6.2% of the total population); Jewish population in 1933: 28
Summary: Although the Jews of Haren on Ems established a place of worship in the Meyering family home in 1810, they often found it difficult to gather a minyan. A teacher was hired in 1825, but paltry enrollment numbers convinced the community, in 1832, to send its children to the general school; nevertheless, teachers of religious studies (they were usually from Meppen) instructed Jewish children from 1883 until 1930. Although we do not know when Haren’s old Jewish cemetery was established—the records indicate an early date—we know for certain that it was replaced by a new cemetery (located north of the town) in 1907, soon after which, in June of 1909, a synagogue was inaugurated on Zum Pascheberg. The provincial rabbinate was in Emden. On Pogrom Night in November 1938, SA troops and the district’s Nazi leader broke into the synagogue and set it on fire; they then proceeded to ransack Jewish businesses and private property. Jewish men were arrested and interned in Sachsenhausen for several weeks. By the end of 1938, six more Jews had left Haren, of whom five relocated to other places in Germany. Nineteen Jews still lived in Haren in 1939; six were sent to Riga in 1941; and five were moved into a “Jews’ house” in Lingen, from which they were deported to a concentration camp. In all, six local Jews managed to emigrate after 1933 (three to the United States and three to Argentina). We do not know how many local Jews perished in Auschwitz and the concentration camps. A Lutheran church was later built on the former synagogue site. Memorials were unveiled there and at the Jewish cemetery in 1981 and 1988, respectively. Memorial “stumbling stones” commemorate 22 former Jewish residents of Haren on Ems.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: HH, PK
Located in: lower-saxony