Korschenbroich

Summary: Religious services were conducted in Joseph Wallach’s home on Muhlenstrasse until 1826, when the Jewish inhabitants of Korschenbroich built a small synagogue on the same street. Towards the end of the century, the community purchased an adjacent house and established there a school for religious studies, a communal office and living accommodation for a community official and his family. Beginning in 1933, local Nazis harassed Jewish residents so relentlessly that most left. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue and the remaining Jewish homes were vandalized, after which the last 11 Jews left Korschenbroich. During the war, French POWs were housed in what remained of the synagogue building. The synagogue was finally torn down in 1959; members of the surviving Jewish community were compensated for the loss of the site. In November 1988, on the 50th anniversary of Pogrom Night, a memorial tablet commemorating the former Jewish community was unveiled in Korschenbroich.

Author / Sources: Harold Slutzkin
Sources: EJL, LJG, SG-NRW