Thalmaessing

Summary: Thalmaessing was home to one of the most important and affluent Jewish communities in the Ansbach princedom. The community established a synagogue on the corner of Ringstrasse and Merleingasse in 1690; a cemetery near Bachstrasse in 1832; a building for the community’s Jewish school (at 10 Schulgasse, or “school alley”) in 1840; and a new synagogue in 1857/58. Local Jews also maintained a mikveh. Five Jewish children studied religion with the teacher/ chazzan in 1933. A women’s association and a chevra kadisha were active in Thalmaessing that year. In 1937, when the community was officially dissolved, Thalmaessing’s synagogue closed down; its ritual objects and Torah scrolls were transferred to the association of Bavarian Jewish communities in Munich. The municipality eventually appropriated the Thalmaessing school building. On Pogrom Night, the synagogue’s interior and its furnishings and remaining ritual objects were destroyed. Thirteen Thalmaessing Jews emigrated and 20 relocated within Germany. By May 1939, all Jewish residents had left Thalmaessing. At least 34 local Jews perished in the Shoah. In 1945, a U.S. soldier, son of a former local Jew, forced Nazi party members to restore the damaged Jewish cemetery. The synagogue, later used as a silo and then as a gym, was demolished in 1970/73 to make room for an apartment building. A memorial plaque has been unveiled near the synagogue site.

Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: AJ, DJGB, EJL, PK-BAV, SZJLB