Muehlhausen
General information: First Jewish presence: 13th century; peak Jewish population: 196 in 1881; Jewish population in 1933: 204
Summary: Records indicate that Jews lived in Muehlhausen in the 13th
century. The medieval community, which maintained both
a synagogue and cemetery, was expelled in 1561.
Jews resettled in Muehlhausen during the 17th and 18th
centuries. In 1841, the modern community, founded in 1806,
inaugurated a new synagogue—it housed a mikveh, a school,
a library and a rabbi’s apartment—at 24 Juedenstrasse (“Jews’
street”). A new cemetery was consecrated on Eisenacher
Strasse in 1872.
In 1933, 204 Jews lived in Muehlhausen. A teacher, who
also served as shochet, instructed 31 schoolchildren in religion.
Three Jewish charity associations were active in the town: a
humanitarian society (founded in 1875), an Israelite women’s association (founded in 1839) and a Chebrah Gemillus Chessed
(founded in or around 1900). In response to anti-Semitic
incitement, which included a show trial in the town against
racial defilement, many Jews left Muehlhausen.
On Pogrom Night, a Nazi official and his drinking
companions desecrated the cemetery, destroyed the
synagogue’s interior and looted Jewish homes and
establishments; the community teacher was shot, and two
elderly women were physically assaulted (they died soon
afterwards). Thirty-one Jewish men were arrested and
brought to a local gym, from which they were sent, on
November 11, to Buchenwald, where two died.
In 1940/41, the town’s remaining Jews were confined
to a designated “Jews’ house” in the synagogue’s front
building. By 1943, following deportations the year before,
Muehlhausen was declared Judenfrei (free of Jews). At least
66 Muehlhausen Jews perished in the Shoah.
Renovated in the 1990s, the synagogue is now a
monument and cultural center. In 1985, a plaque was affixed
to a former Jewish home at 17 Lindenbuehl.
Photo: The synagogue of Muehlhausen. Courtesy of: Town Archive of Muehlhausen.
Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: AJ, DJKT, EJL, FJG
www.muehlhausen.de
Sources: AJ, DJKT, EJL, FJG
www.muehlhausen.de
Located in: thuringia