Neustadt am Ruebenberge

Summary: In 1824, by which point Neustadt am Ruebenberge was home to a synagogue on Mittelstrasse, the Jewish community appointed Samuel Hirsch as chairman and an unidentified man as teacher, chazzan and shochet. Although the Jewish cemetery had been consecrated in 1804, its earliest extant gravestone is dated March 5, 1844. The Jewish public school closed down on January 4, 1910, and we also know that an itinerant teacher named Weinberg, of Wunstdorf, instructed children in religion during the years 1913 (seven children) to 1924 (eight children). Neustadt am Ruebenberge belonged to the provincial rabbinate of Hannover. From 1933 until Pogrom Night, 25 Jews left Neustadt am Ruebenberge (only one family emigrated). On November 9, 1938, SA men smashed the synagogue’s windows, destroyed its interior and demolished the roof, after which they wrapped the community’s hearse in a Torah scroll and positioned it opposite the residence of the Jewish Meinrath family, where it was set on fire the following day. Jewish-owned homes and businesses were ransacked, and property was confiscated. On December 2, 1938, Meinrath’s bank was expropriated by the Baebenroth bank. Later, on June 25, 1939, by which point the Jewish population had dwindled to four, the synagogue building and site were sold to a locksmith. Of the 42 Jews living in Neustadt am Ruebenberge in 1933, 21 perished in the Shoah. Nine local Jews emigrated, but the fate of 11 is unknown. Else Fritsche was deported to Theresienstadt on February 19, 1945; an ordeal she survived. The synagogue building was torn down in the early 1950s; a memorial plaque was erected on the site in November 1985. At the Jewish cemetery, in which 61 stones are still intact (a burial took place there as late as 1998), a memorial stone was unveiled in 1968; the cemetery was vandalized in 1956, 1967 and again in 1986.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: HH, HU, PK
ak-regionalgeschichte.de
www.myheimat.de/coelbe/profil/10812/beate-shumate/