Lohr

Summary: The Jewish community of Lohr, officially established in 1867, inaugurated a synagogue at 34 Fischergasse, in 1871; the building housed a mikveh and an apartment for a teacher who also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. Lohr’s Jewish burials took place at the cemetery in Laudenbach. We also know that in 1918, the local psychiatric institution opened a department for Jewish patients (financed by a Jewish charity association in Aschaffenburg). A teacher from Gemuenden instructed six Jewish schoolchildren in Lohr in 1933. In March 1938, following Germany’s annexation of Austria, Jewish homes were attacked and damaged. On Pogrom Night, SA men ransacked the synagogue and attacked Jewish homes and businesses; two Jews were deported, one to Dachau and one to Buchenwald. Nine Lohr Jews emigrated and 50 relocated within Germany. By February 1939, only two Jewish women remained in the town, both of whom were married to Christians. Later, in September 1940, the 19 Jewish patients at the psychiatric institute were sent to the Eglfing-Haar asylum in Munich; they were then deported to Chelm, in Poland, where 15 were murdered. At least nine Lohr Jews perished in the Shoah. A memorial stone was later unveiled on Grafen-von-Rieneck- Strasse. Several ritual items that were rescued from the synagogue were handed over to Munich’s post-war Jewish community.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK BAV