Kleinsteinach

Summary: Kleinsteinach was home to a Jewish cemetery as early as 1453. The community built a synagogue in 1736 (renovated in 1903), and employed a teacher who also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. In 1933, a chevra kadisha, a Bikur Cholim society for visiting the sick, a religious association and a charitable society (called the Chevra Maariv-Bisman) were active in Kleinsteinach. From 1934 onwards, the Jewish communities of Kleinsteinach, Aidhausen and Hofheim jointly employed a teacher of religion. On Pogrom Night, rioters ransacked Jewish homes and destroyed the synagogue’s interior—breaking windows, burning Torah scrolls and ritual objects, and smashing to pieces a memorial plaque for Jewish soldiers who had died in World War I. Forewarned of what was to come, the village’s Jewish men managed to escape before the pogrom; the remaining women and one child were detained in the police station. In the years 1936 to 1940, 15 Kleinsteinach Jews emigrated and four relocated within Germany. In April 1942, four local Jews were deported to Izbica (via Wuerzburg); and in June 1942, the remaining five were sent to Schweinfurt, from where they were deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942. At least 40 Kleinsteinach Jews perished in the Shoah. The synagogue building was demolished in the 1950s. A memorial plaque has been unveiled near the site.

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