Stolzenau

Summary: In 1834, this Jewish community established a synagogue— which also housed a schoolroom and lodgings for the teacher—on Hinterm Dahle. Up to 80 students attended the school in the 1880s, after which enrollment dropped steadily until 1925, when the school closed. The oldest gravestone in the Jewish cemetery in Stolzenau is dated 1729. We also know that the Stolzenau community, with which the Jews of nearby Landesbergen, Leese and Niendorf were affiliated, established a chevra kadisha in 1860 and a chevra bachurim (boys’ association) in 1890. On Pogrom Night, Nazis smashed the windows of the synagogue and set the building on fire; Torah scrolls and other ritual objects were burned at the market place, a sight that caused the town’s eldest Jewish citizen to suffer a fatal heart attack. Windows in Jewish businesses and homes were broken, but the SA saw to it that no rioters entered the dwellings. Several Jewish men from Stolzenau and Leese were arrested and imprisoned, after which they were presumably deported to Buchenwald. In July 1940, the community sold the synagogue to the municipality for 1,000 Reichsmarks. Thirteen Jews lived in Stolzenau in 1940. In March of that year, the town’s remaining nine Jews were assembled in the house of Selig Blumenfeld, the last leader of the community, from which, several days later, they were sent to Ahlem; two Jewish couples from Leese were also included in the transport. On March 31, these Jews were deported to Warsaw, never to be heard from again. Another 18 Stolzenau Jews were deported to Theresienstadt, Sobibor, Riga, Minsk and Auschwitz. A Jewish woman from Leese perished in Theresienstadt, and Alfred Strauss was killed in Minsk. The Jewish cemetery on Die Grosse Geest (north of Stolzenau) contains approximately 134 graves.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: JGNB1, PK
www.stolzenau.de/rundgang.htm