Merzhausen

Summary: By 1833, the Jewish community of Merzhausen had established a synagogue in a half-timbered building at 10, Dorfstrasse (present-day 30, Ziegenhainer Strasse); the nearby Jewish school accommodated a teacher’s apartment and a mikveh. Although the school was closed in 1878, when only four children studied there—25 were enrolled in 1868— it was reopened for 20 students in 1886. Merzhausen’s Jewish school was presided over by a teacher who served as chazzan and shochet. The community, which belonged to the district rabbinate in Marburg, consecrated a cemetery in 1858. By 1933, the Jews of Willingshausen (five Jewish families in 1933) and Schrecksbach (one family) had been affiliated with the community in Merzhausen. The synagogue community, many members of which were textile merchants, maintained a welfare society and a brotherhood. The last leader of the community was Avraham Plaut. Several Merzhausen Jews immigrated to the United States and to Palestine after 1933; others relocated within Germany. The synagogue was plundered in 1938, after which the building was appropriated by a nearby farmer who later (in 1947 or 1951) tore it down. In 1939, only nine Jews lived in Merzhausen. On May 31, 1942, the remaining two Jews were deported to a concentration camp. At least 22 Merzhausen Jews, 10 from Willingshausen and two from Schrecksbach perished in the Shoah. The former Jewish school is now a residential building. Heavily damaged during the Nazi period, the cemetery was reconstructed after the war. During the 1990s, Theo Plaut tried in vain to erect a memorial at or near the former synagogue site. A memorial stone was, however, erected in memory of Avraham Plaut and his brother, both murdered in a concentration camp.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-HNF
findingaids.cjh.org/
archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/06/11/