Wildeshausen
General information: First Jewish presence: 13th century; peak Jewish population: 72 in 1865; Jewish population in 1933: unknown
Summary: In 1827, the Jews of Wildeshausen formed the Wildeshausen
synagogue community, which intermittently included the
Jews of nearby Doettlingen, Kirchatten, Huntlosen and,
later, Grossenkneten. Religious services in Wildeshausen
were conducted in the Heinemann family home until 1830,
when the community procured a shack at 30 Huntestrasse
and remodeled it as a synagogue with a prayer room, a
schoolroom and an apartment for the teacher. Due to low
enrollment numbers, the school was closed in 1876, after
which an itinerant teacher from Delmenhorst instructed
Wildeshausen’s remaining Jewish schoolchildren.
Wildeshausen’s Jewish cemetery was consecrated in 1707.
In 1937, Jonny and Frieda de Vries were sent to a
concentration camp for so-called “Rassenmischung” (literally,
“race mixing”). They both perished. Although the synagogue was
sold before the Pogrom Night of November 1938, members of
the SA and fire department destroyed the building that night.
The SA ransacked Jewish residences and the remaining Jewishowned
businesses. Five Jewish men were arrested and deported
to Sachsenhausen; they returned in early 1939.
In 1940, the remaining 10 Jews were forced to leave
town. Sent to a so-called “Jews’ house” in Bremen, most
were deported to Minsk on November 18, 1942, where they
were shot. Of those Jews who lived in Wildeshausen during
the years 1933 and 1940, 12 perished in the Shoah; the death
toll, however, rises when former residents are included—in
one such family, 29 perished in the Shoah.
A memorial stone was unveiled at the cemetery in 1988;
in 1997, a granite memorial was erected at the former
synagogue site.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: EJL, JGNB
Sources: EJL, JGNB
Located in: lower-saxony