Merchingen

General information: First Jewish presence: 17th century; peak Jewish population: 325 in 1849; Jewish population in 1933: 38
Summary: This community conducted services in prayer halls until 1737, when local Jews purchased a house on Buchenweg and converted it into a synagogue. Other communal institutions included a mikveh, a school (founded in the 1830s) and a larger synagogue, the last of which was inaugurated in the mid-19th century. We also know that, in 1810, after decades of burying its dead in Berlichingen, Bodigheim and Huengheim, the Merchingen community consecrated a cemetery on the road to Ballenberg. In 1933, by which point the Jews of Osterburken had been affiliated with the community, nine schoolchildren studied religion in Merchingen. A Jewish charity was active there that year. On Pogrom Night, chazzan Heymann Bravmann and his wife were assaulted in their apartment; the synagogue’s interior was destroyed. Later, in 1940, the building was sold to the municipality, after which it was converted into a sports hall. Twenty-two Merchingen Jews emigrated, nine relocated within Germany, five died in Merchingen and three were deported to Gurs on October 22, 1940. At least 29 Merchingen Jews perished in the Shoah. Of the six Osterburken Jews, five emigrated and one died in 1938. Although the cemetery was accidentally bombed in an air raid in 1945, much of it still exists. The synagogue was converted into a church after the war, and in 1983 a memorial stone and plaque were unveiled at the site.
Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AH, AJ, EJL, PK-BW
Located in: baden-wuerttemberg