Wilhelmshaven
General information: First Jewish presence: in or around the year 1870; peak Jewish population: 200 in the 1920s (see below); Jewish population in 1933: 191
Summary: Jews moved to Wilhelmshaven, a new seaport and naval base,
in or around the year 1870. By 1901, they were registered as an
official Jewish community together with the Jews of neighboring
Ruestringen. The community’s members included numerous
merchants and butchers, three farmers, a theater director, a
well-known writer and a high-ranking soldier.
Burials were conducted in Jever until 1908, when the
community consecrated its own cemetery in Schortens-Heidmuehle. In 1915, local Jews replaced their prayer
room with a synagogue on the corner of Boersenstrasse and
Parkstrasse; the building also housed a mikveh and a school,
whose teacher not only performed the duties of shochet and
chazzan, but also served as chaplain to Jewish sailors. The
Jews of Wilhelmshaven and Ruestringen maintained a chevra
kadisha, a Jewish women’s association and, later, a literary
circle and a youth movement.
In 1933, 191 Jews still lived in town, of whom 100 left
during the years 1933 to 1938.
On Pogrom Night (November 1938), Jewish shops and
homes were vandalized. Jews were taken from their houses
and publicly humiliated as onlookers threw stones at them.
Thirty-four Jewish men were deported to the Sachsenhausen
concentration camp. Members of various Nazi organizations
set fire to the synagogue; the building burned down
completely, after which the surrounding walls were blown
up and the ritual objects were put on display in the street.
A further 45 Jews were able to leave town before 1939.
Wilhelmshaven’s remaining Jews were subsequently deported
and murdered. At least 68 local Jews died in the Shoah.
The former synagogue site became a memorial in the
1970s; in 1980, a plaque was unveiled there.
Photo: The Wilhelmshaven synagogue, with its impressive cupola, probably in the 1920s or 1930s. Courtesy of: Unknown.
Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AH, AJ, EJL
Sources: AH, AJ, EJL
Located in: lower-saxony