Eppertshausen

Summary: Records do not mention the Jews of Eppertshausen until the 18th century, but it is possible that Jews lived there as early as the 15th century. Services were conducted in a prayer room until the 1790s, when a synagogue was built at 19 Schulstrasse. The community, which belonged to the Darmstadt II rabbinate, maintained its own religious school and mikveh. Burials were conducted in Dieburg. Six schoolchildren received religious instruction during the 1931/32 school year. On Pogrom Night, Mayor Helfrich, SA men and members of the Hitler Youth destroyed the interior of the synagogue. According to another source, they set the building on fire, but the fact that the building remained intact suggests that the blaze was quickly extinguished. A Jewish baby was thrown from a window, after which (one month later) the infant died. Jewish homes were ransacked on Pogrom Night, and five Jewish men were arrested and sent to Buchenwald. Most of the remaining Jewish residents moved to Frankfurt after the pogrom, the last on December 27, 1938. At least nine former residents of Eppertshausen perished in the Shoah. At the former synagogue site—the building was appropriated by Christian residents after Pogrom Night and demolished in 1939—a memorial stone commemorates the destroyed community.

Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: AJ
www.echo-online.de/suedhessen/detail.php3?id=614297