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
Located in: baden-wuerttemberg