Treysa

Summary: By the year 1895, most of Treysa’s Jews had established themselves as peddlers, cattle traders, butchers, craftsmen, merchants and small factory owners. Jewish burials were conducted in Ziegenhain or Niedergrenzbach until 1850, when the Treysa community consecrated its own cemetery on Wasenberger Strasse. In 1819, the Jews of Treysa replaced their prayer room with a new synagogue—60 seats for men, 40 for women—on Im Neuen Weg (the synagogue was renovated in 1929). A new building for the Jewish school, which from 1835 until 1922 served as a public school, was dedicated in 1898; the schoolteacher also fulfilled the tasks of shochet and chazzan. We also know that Treysa had a mikveh as well as two Jewish charities, a women’s association and a Jewish youth movement. Between 1933 and 1939, 59 Treysa Jews emigrated from Germany. On Pogrom Night (November 1938), Jews were assaulted, the cemetery was desecrated, Jewish homes were plundered and the synagogue’s interior was destroyed. Used as a POW camp during the war, the synagogue was replaced by a residential building at some point during the 1950s. The last Jews were deported from Treysa in 1942. At least 68 Treysa Jews perished in the Shoah. A memorial stone was unveiled at the cemetery in 1976; another memorial, erected by relatives of Treysa’s Shoah victims, commemorates the town’s former Jewish community. In addition, several memorial stumbling stones have been laid in Treysa.

Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AH, AJ, EJL
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