Ettlingen
General information: First Jewish presence: 1308; peak Jewish population: 75 in 1910; Jewish population in 1933: 48
Summary: The Jews of Ettlingen, first documented in 1308, disappeared
after the Black Death pogroms. The modern community was
established during the 18th century.
Local Jews conducted services a prayer room until
1889, when a new synagogue—it housed a mikveh—was
inaugurated at 20 Pforzheimer Strasse, replacing the one
established in 1849. The community employed a teacher
who served as a chazzan and shochet, and we also know that
burials were conducted at the Kuppenheim cemetery.
In 1933, nine schoolchildren received religious
instruction; a women’s association was still active in Ettlingen
that year. Thirty-one non-local Jews, warned in advance by
an anti-Nazi official that they faced imminent violence where
they were living, moved to Ettlingen after 1933.
On Pogrom Night, rioters burned down the synagogue
building. Jewish men were sent to Dachau, and the synagogue’s
ruins were demolished at the community’s expense.
Sixteen local Jews emigrated, six relocated within
Germany and four died in Ettlingen. Of the 31 newcomers,
eight emigrated and 21 relocated within Germany. A family
of seven Polish Jews was deported to Poland in 1938/39; nine
Jews were deported to Gurs on October 22, 1940. Several
families, warned in advance by the aforementioned official,
escaped abroad. At least 28 Ettlingen Jews perished in the
Shoah.
Plaques were unveiled at the two synagogue sites in 1966
and 1985.
Photo: The synagogue of Ettlingen. Courtesy of: State Archive of Baden- Wuerttemberg, Karlsruhe.
Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-BW, SG-BW
www.jgm-net.de/Baden/etlingn.html
Sources: AJ, EJL, PK-BW, SG-BW
www.jgm-net.de/Baden/etlingn.html
Located in: baden-wuerttemberg