Guntersblum
General information: First Jewish presence: 1548; peak Jewish population: 169 in 1834; Jewish population in 1933: 40
Summary:
The earliest available reference to a synagogue in Guntersblum
is dated 1744; later, in 1769/70, the community established
a new synagogue at 12 Bleichstrasse (renovated in 1860
or 1862). The Jews of Guntersblum also maintained a
cemetery—first documented in 1829 and enlarged in 1893—
and a Jewish school, the latter of which was established in
1824 (possibly 1830) and moved to 1 Viehgasse in 1839
(the building also housed a mikveh). The school, however,
closed down in 1914, after which the community employed a
teacher of religion who also performed the duties of chazzan
and shochet.
By 1933, synagogue services were no longer held on a
regular basis.
One day before Pogrom Night, the head of the
municipality urged the village’s 12 remaining Jews to flee.
On Pogrom Night itself, rioters damaged and partially
burned the synagogue’s interior and ritual objects. Three
Jewish community leaders who had not managed to
escape were forced to march the Torah scrolls through the
village as a crowd hurled stones and verbal abuse. At the
marketplace, where a prepared pile of wood awaited them,
the Jews were forced to burn the scrolls; one man refused,
and was accordingly beaten. The three community leaders
were arrested, Jewish-owned homes and businesses were
ransacked and a Jewish woman was locked inside a chicken
coop. One month later, in December 1938, a local resident
bought the synagogue building, after which it was used as
a storage site. Under Nazi rule, 17 Jews emigrated, 21 relocated within
Germany and three, the village’s last, were deported to the
East in September 1942. At least 38 Guntersblum Jews
perished in the Shoah.
The cemetery was desecrated in 1969. Placed under state
protection in 1984, the synagogue building was renovated
in 1996. A memorial plaque has been affixed to the former
Jewish school.
Author / Sources: Nurit Borut
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-HNF
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-HNF
Located in: rhineland-palatinate