Stargard

Summary: Jewish traders first settled in Stargard in the second half of the 17th century (after 1665). The Jewish community, founded after 1690, developed into one of the largest in Pomerania. From the 1850s onwards, several Jews served on the city council. Although the synagogue (located at 14-15 Speicherstrasse) was not inaugurated until 1913, the community had, for years, been employing a rabbi, a chazzan and a beadle (who summoned Jews to prayer services by knocking on their doors). The liberal synagogue housed an organ and, in the front building, apartments for the rabbi and the chazzan. Stargard’s Jewish cemetery, consecrated during the 17th century, was located on Kalkenberg. During the years 1921 to 1923, thousands of Eastern European Jews were interned in a camp in Stargard, which had been established by the Weimar government. Many prisoners were mistreated there. In 1932/33, 310 Jews lived in the city. Several welfare and social organizations were active in the Jewish community, among them a branch of the Jewish Women’s League (founded in 1908), the Reisemann Foundation’s old-age home (established in 1899) and a lodge of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith. A teacher/chazzan instructed Jewish children in religion. In August 1935, anti-Semitic agitation and measures intensified in the town. Later, on Pogrom Night, November 1938, the synagogue was set on fire; Stargard’s fire brigade extinguished the blaze, after which the arsonists blew up the building. Jewish-owned stores were attacked that night, and windows in Jewish homes were broken. Several Stargard Jews managed to immigrate to Shanghai and to other destinations; those who stayed in the city were eventually deported to the Lublin district in Poland. At least 37 Stargard Jews perished in the Shoah.

Author / Sources: Heidemarie Wawrzyn
Sources: DJD, EJL, FJG, GKJP