Bonfeld

Summary: The community presumably used a prayer room (established in the mid-1700s) until 1780, when a synagogue was built in a house located on present-day Rappenauer Strasse. Local Jews established a school during the 19th century, and we also know that burials were conducted in Waibstadt. Julius Zion was chairman of the Bonfeld gymnastics club; a rare example of a Jew achieving prominence in a German social or sporting organization. In 1933, the 40 Jews (half would emigrate before 1941) of Bonfeld employed a shochet and maintained a synagogue and mikveh. By 1938, the boycott had forced out most of the village’s Jewish business owners. On Pogrom Night (November 1938), SA men destroyed the synagogue’s interior and assaulted Jewish men. Hugo Heinrich Hertz suffered internal injuries so severe that he died of them two years later. Several men were sent to Dachau after the pogrom, and the synagogue was sold and demolished a few weeks later. Those Jews (including Julius Zion) who still lived in the village in 1941 were deported to the East in 1941 and 1942, where they perished. At least 20 Bonfeld Jews died in the Shoah. At the time of this writing, although plans to unveil a memorial stone in Bonfeld have been made, no such stone has been unveiled.

Author / Sources: Maren Cohen
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-BW