Moerfelden-Walldorf
General information: First Jewish presence: 1611; peak Jewish population: 80 in 1861; Jewish population in 1933: unknown
Summary: Records from 1806 mention Yitzhak ben Aharon, a teacher
of religious studies. Community member Moshe Katz
began fundraising for the construction of a synagogue in
1816; inaugurated in 1829, the synagogue was located
on Kalbsgasse. Burials were conducted in two older
cemeteries until 1841, when new burial grounds were
consecrated in Gross-Gerau. Community membership—
Moerfelden-Walldorf belonged to the Orthodox rabbinate
in Darmstadt—began to decline after 1861.
In 1933, the Agudat Chovevei Hatevi club was shut down.
Later, in 1935, members of the Hitler Youth heavily damaged
the synagogue. Three Moerfelden-Walldorf Jews emigrated
in 1936; one local Jewish woman committed suicide.
On Pogrom Night, Simon Goldschmidt’s shack was
burned down, windows in Jewish homes were broken and
two Jewish men—Max Strauss and Adolf Reiss—were sent to a
concentration camp. Although the synagogue had been sold in
1937, the building was nonetheless ravaged on Pogrom Night.
In 1938, three local Jews immigrated to South Africa,
one to England and one to Luxemburg. Others relocated
within Germany, mainly to Frankfurt am Main. On May
17, 1939, 16 Jews still lived in Moerfelden, of whom three
(Erna Strauss and her two children, Ruth and Kurt) managed
to immigrate to New York on January 6, 1941.
In 1941, the 13 remaining Jews were forcibly moved into
Simon Schott’s home at 9 Mittelgasse. Schott, the 72-yearold
community chairman, hanged himself in his shack on
March 5, 1942. Two weeks later, on March 20, 1942, the
remaining Jews were deported to the death camps. Ten were
sent to Poland, and two were deported from Walldorf to
Theresienstadt in September 1942.
In 1947, a local sports association unveiled a memorial
stone to the Jewish community at the cemetery. At the
initiative of the German Communist Party, a memorial stone
was unveiled at the former synagogue site.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: IAJGS, PK-HNF
www.synagoge-pfungstadt.de/
www.synagoge-heubach.de
www.moerfelden-walldorf.de
www.fjgk.de/
Located in: hesse