Bollendorf

Summary: Owing to the success of several local Jews in commerce and industry, the Jewish community of Bollendorf (located near the border with Luxemburg) developed quickly. Jews conducted services in a prayer hall, attached to a private residence, until a community member donated a plot of land on which a synagogue with a seating capacity of 100 was built. The Jewish population decreased rapidly after World War I, as local Jews left in hopes of finding better economic opportunities elsewhere. More Jews left the area after the Nazis implemented their anti-Jewish boycott (1933). On Pogrom Night, the synagogue and the remaining Jewish-owned stores and homes were wrecked; the names of local Jewish soldiers who died in World War I were removed from the town’s war memorial. Of those Jews who still lived in Bollendorf on Pogrom Night, some managed to cross the nearby border or otherwise flee. Only 11 Jews lived in the town when the final deportation took place, but at least 23 Bollendorf Jews perished in the Shoah. The desecrated cemetery was restored after the war; a memorial plaque has been unveiled there.

Author / Sources: Harold Slutzkin
Sources: EJL, SG-RPS