Trabelsdorf

General information: First Jewish presence: 1736; peak Jewish population: 80 in 1840; Jewish population in 1933: 18
Summary: The Jewish community of Trabelsdorf built a synagogue at 1 Kirchblick in or around the year 1800. During the years 1825 to 1869, Jewish children attended the school in Kolmsdorf; in 1869, the school relocated to two sites, one in Trabelsdorf and the other in Walsdorf; communities with which the Trabelsdorf Jews had established a rotating system. The synagogue, renovated in 1871 and again in 1875, also contained a classroom and an apartment for the teacher/chazzan. Local Jews maintained a mikveh until 1884, and buried their dead in Lisberg. In 1907, the Trabelsdorf community merged with that in Walsdorf. On Pogrom Night, SA men from Bamberg, aided by local residents, vandalized the Trabelsdorf synagogue, destroyed its interior and burned its ritual objects; two Jews were assaulted that night. The synagogue was sold to the municipality in 1940. Two Trabelsdorf Jews emigrated, five relocated within Germany and nine were deported to Izbica, via Bamberg, in April 1942. Trabelsdorf’s last Jew, an elderly woman, was sent to Bamberg in June 1942. At least 33 local Jews perished in the Shoah. One of them was Luise Loewenfels, a convert to Catholicism who had become a well-respected nun, Maria Aloysia, of the Order of the Dernbach Sisters. After the war, the synagogue was sold to a family and converted into an apartment building.
Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: AJ, DJGB, EJL, PK-BAV, SIA, SZJLB
www.lisberg.de/lisberg/geschichte/index.html
Located in: bavaria