Sprendlingen

Summary: In 1831, the newly founded Jewish community of Sprendlingen inaugurated a synagogue on Hauptstrasse (renovated in 1931). The Jews of Sprendlingen maintained a mikveh and a cemetery –the latter was consecrated in 1831— and employed a teacher of religion, who also performed the duties of chazzan and shochet. Fourteen schoolchildren studied religion in Sprendlingen in 1933. A chevra kadisha and branches of nation-wide organizations were active in the community, with which the Jews of Neu-Isenburg were affiliated. In March 1933, a local Jew was beaten so severely by two SA men that he lost an eye. The synagogue was burned down one day before Pogrom Night (November 1938); Jewish men were sent to Buchenwald, where one was murdered. Sprendlingen’s local council cleared the synagogue’s ruins, charged the remaining Jews 200 Reichsmarks for the work, and appropriated the land. Fifty-seven Jews emigrated, 20 relocated within Germany, 11 passed away in Sprendlingen and 16, the last, were deported to the East in September 1942. At least eight Sprendlingen Jews perished in the Shoah. In 1977, a memorial plaque was affixed to the local council building, opposite the former synagogue site.

Author / Sources: Nurit Borut
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-HNF