Cologne-Deutz (Köln / Koeln)
General information: First Jewish presence: 1424; peak Jewish population: 248 in 1816; Jewish population in 1933: unknown
Summary: The Jewish community of Deutz, which is today part of
the city of Cologne, started to expand after the Napoleonic
armies granted Jews equal rights. Deutz’s Jewish cemetery,
already in use in 1695 and located on land leased from the
Cologne Archbishopric, served the community until World
War I. We also know that local Jews conducted services in
a small prayer hall until 1794, when the site was destroyed
by flooding and was subsequently rebuilt into a two-story
synagogue with schoolrooms and living quarters. It, too, was torn down (to make room for a bridge over the Rhine
River) and rebuilt yet again in 1915. In Deutz, many Jews
earned a living as moneylenders. Deutz was incorporated
into Cologne in 1888.
The boycotts of 1933 forced many Jews to leave Deutz.
On Pogrom Night, November 1938, the interior of the
synagogue was looted and later destroyed. A plaque was
later affixed to the building. Another plaque, displayed at
the railway station, commemorates the thousands—most of
Cologne’s Jews were deported from Deutz—who were sent
to Eastern Europe from there. The plaque reads: “Over this
stairway many people went to their deaths.”
Photo: The synagogue of Cologne-Deutz. Courtesy of: The Wiener Library, University Tel Aviv, Israel.
Author / Sources: Harold Slutzkin
Sources; LIG, SIA
Sources; LIG, SIA
Located in: north-rhine-westphalia