Meppen
General information: First Jewish presence: unknown; peak Jewish population: 95 in 1871; Jewish population in 1933: 49
Summary: The earliest available record of a Jewish presence in Meppen
mentions Fiebelmann Susmann of Haltern. In 1849, the
Jews of Meppen inaugurated a synagogue on Nagelshof
(later, 17, Nagelshof ), in the back of which they built a
classroom and an apartment for a teacher. The first teacher was hired in 1816, and we also know that Meppen was home
to a Jewish school from the year 1851 until (approximately)
1921. Records from 1896 and 1901 mention a Talmud Torah
school; after 1860, the community ran a Jewish sisterhood.
By November 1938, 26 Jews had left town, seven of
whom emigrated from Germany.
On November 10, 1938, at four in the morning, an SA
leader received orders to burn down the synagogue and
arrest the remaining Jewish men, who were then interned
in Sachsenhausen (one was sent to Buchenwald). Before
being sent to Sachsenhausen, one of the men managed to
save a Torah shield from the ashes; he brought it with him
when he immigrated to California, where it is now on display
in a synagogue.
At least 12 Meppen Jews perished in the Shoah. A
memorial stone was placed near the synagogue site—it now
accommodates a residential building—in 1996. Meppen’s
Jewish cemetery was vandalized in 1952 and again in
1987/88.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: JGNB1
www.judentum-christentum.de/index.php?option=com_ content&task=view&id=60
Sources: JGNB1
www.judentum-christentum.de/index.php?option=com_ content&task=view&id=60
Located in: lower-saxony