Hoechheim

Summary: Hoechheim’s first synagogue was inaugurated in 1798. The community maintained a mikveh and a school, and, by the end of the 19th century, had employed a teacher who also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. The Jews of Hoechheim buried their dead in nearby Kleinbardorf. By 1933, the community could no longer employ its own teacher. Accordingly, teachers from Bad Koenigshofen traveled to Hoechheim to supervise the community’s schoolchildren. On Pogrom Night, rioters attacked and damaged the synagogue building, destroying furniture, ritual objects and Torah scrolls. The school building was also partly damaged. During the Nazi period, eight Hoechheim Jews immigrated to the United States while others relocated within Germany. Four local Jews were sent to Wuerzburg in March 1942, where one later died; three were deported to Theresienstadt in September of that year; and nine, the last, were deported to Izbica (via Wuerzburg) in April 1942. At least 24 Hoechheim Jews died in the Shoah. The synagogue—it had served a kindergarten after the war—was demolished in the mid-1970s to make room for a larger kindergarten building. A memorial plaque was later affixed to the municipal building.

Author / Sources: Yaakov Borut
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK BAV