Gladbeck

Summary: Many Jews from Polish Galicia settled in Gladbeck, especially after 1920. Between 1911 until 1931, the Jewish community of Gladbeck was affiliated with that in Dorsten. In 1925, the community established a prayer room on Kaiserstrasse (present-day Horster Strasse) which was mainly used by Jews from Eastern Europe (Ostjuden). There was little contact between the Eastern European Jews and the wealthier Gladbeck Jews, who attended synagogue services in Essen. Gladbeck’s municipal burial grounds on Feldhausener Strasse included a Jewish cemetery; in use between 1908 and 1937, the cemetery was desecrated in 1929. In 1933, SA men assembled Jewish men in the marketplace, where they were humiliated and beaten. Many Jews immigrated to Belgium and the Netherlands; the Eastern European Jews were deported in 1938. On Pogrom Night, SA men and members of the Nazi Party smashed windows in Jewish homes and looted Jewishowned shops; Jewish men were taken into “protective custody.” In 1939, only 20 Jews still lived in Gladbeck. Seventy-two Gladbeck Jews perished in the Shoah. According to records, four survived a forced labor camp in Saxony. A memorial plaque was unveiled at 54 Horster Strasse in 1990.

Author / Sources: Beate Grosz-Wenker
Sources: EJL, SG-NRW, SIA, PK-NRW