Annaberg

General information: First Jewish presence: 1839; peak Jewish population: 147 in 1907; Jewish population in 1933: 58
Summary: Beginning in 1554, Jews were forbidden from settling in the Ore Mountains region near Annaberg. In or around 1811, Jewish merchants started to attend the local fairs, but it was only after 1867 that Jews were permitted to settle permanently in Annaberg. A Liberal Jewish community, founded in 1890, conducted services at 3 Schulberg and (starting in 1925) at 17 Buchholzer Strasse. Annaberg’s Jewish cemetery, located on Chemnitzer Strasse, was consecrated in 1902. From the 1850s until the beginning of the 20th century, local Jews owned important trimmings factories, but the demand for these products diminished after WWI, forcing many Jews to leave. On Pogrom Night, rioters destroyed the prayer room, vandalized Jewish-owned shops and homes, blew up the cemetery hall and desecrated the cemetery itself; several local Jewish men were arrested that night. The cemetery was leveled in 1940, after which some of the corpses were exhumed and transferred to the Chemnitz Jewish cemetery. The remains of the prayer room were torn down in 1945. Three Annaberg Jews were among the last Jews to be deported from Saxony on February 15, 1945. At least 14 Annaberg Jews perished in the Shoah. In 1957, a “Jewish Memorial Grove” was established at the Annaberg-Buchholz cemetery. Later, in 1988, a memorial stone was unveiled there.
Author / Sources: Beate Grosz-Wenker; Sources: AJ, EJ, JAE, LJG
Located in: saxony