Menden

Summary: The earliest available record of a Jewish presence in Menden is dated 1643. The community conducted services in a prayer room on Wasserstrasse until 1821, when a synagogue, the first in the Iserlohn region, was inaugurated on the corner of Hochstrasse and Synagogengasse (“synagogue alley”); the building also accommodated a women’s gallery and a schoolroom. In Menden, a Jewish cemetery was consecrated on Am Bromberken in 1837. During the years 1861 to 1878, five local Jews were elected to the town council. In 1932/33, 43 Jews lived in Menden; 11 schoolchildren received religions instruction. Later, on Pogrom Night, SA men and local civilians damaged the synagogue’s door and windows, threw Torah scrolls onto the street, burned down part of the interior and desecrated the cemetery. The synagogue building was renovated as a furniture shop in May 1939. In all, 13 Jews left Menden. Thirteen were deported in April and July of 1942, and at least 17 local Jews died in the Shoah. The former synagogue building was torn down in 1952; at the site, which now accommodates a new building, a plaque commemorates the synagogue and a memorial stone commemorates Menden’s Jewish deportees.

Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: EJL, FJG, SG-NRW, SIA, YV
Birkmann, Guenter/ Stratmann, Hartmut: Bedenke vor wem du stehst. Essen 1998.