Schwelm
General information: 1st Jew. pres.: 1593; peak Jew. pop.: 100 in 1895 - 77 in 1909; Jew. pop. in 1933: 54 at the beginn. of 1933, 34 at the end of 1933 ( differing info.)
Summary: Schwelm’s first two documented Jewish residents are
mentioned in a local registration list dated 1593/95. The
community never had an official rabbi, and in 1854 became
a sub-community of Hagen.
Local Jews conducted services in prayer rooms until a
synagogue was built at 15 Fronhofstrasse; it was inaugurated
on August 6, 1819, the same year in which a Jewish
cemetery was consecrated in Schwelm. The community also
maintained an elementary school—located in the synagogue
building and, later, in a private residence on Neumarkt—but
the school was closed in 1892 as a result of low enrollment
numbers.
In 1933, 54 Jews lived in Schwelm, with 34 remaining
by year’s end, a result of Schwelm’s early embrace of anti-
Jewish violence: SA men blocked the entrance to Jewish
stores to enforce the boycott, and the town’s walls were often
smeared with anti-Jewish graffiti. The community sold the
synagogue building on November 14, 1937, after which the
Torah scrolls were transferred to Gevelsberg.
The Nazis had planned to incinerate the synagogue
building on Pogrom Night, but were prevented from doing
so by local authorities. Instead, they broke into the building
and destroyed its interior; the building was torn down shortly
afterwards. At the cemetery, gravestones were vandalized and
knocked down. Several Jewish homes were also vandalized,
as was the only remaining Jewish-owned store (owned by
Ludwig Heinemann).
In 1938, 25 Jews lived in Schwelm. When the deportations
began in 1942, the seven remaining Jews were forced into a
“Jews’ house” on Bahnhofsstrasse. All seven were deported
to and perished in the camps. Three Jews of mixed descent
were deported for slave labor and returned to Schwelm after
the war.
The land on which the synagogue once stood is now a
park; a memorial plaque has been unveiled at the site. The
defunct cemetery is located on the outskirts of town, in the
district of Delle.
Author / Sources: Benjamin Rosendahl
Sources: AJ, EJL, SG-NRW
Sources: AJ, EJL, SG-NRW
Located in: north-rhine-westphalia