Hanau, Germany

Hanau Hesse-Nassau, Germany. After Jews living there perished in the Black Death persecutions of 1348-49, no community existed until 1600, when Jewish families were invited to help develop trade and industry. By 1608, the Jews had a synagogue and numbered 159, growing to 540 in 1822. The community attained its maximum size in 1905, numbering 654 . During the Weimanr Republic, Jews were active in civic affairs and politics. They played a leading role in the diamond industry and owned factories, banks, textile firms, and a Woolworth department store. As a result of the Nazi boycott, however, Jews were dismissed from public office and their businesses collapsed. Emigration and Zionist activity increased. A murderous pogrom occurred on Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), when the synagogue was burned down, and the community shrank from 477 in 1933 to 82 in June 1939. A transport of 75 Jews left Hanau for Nazi death camps in 1942. Only half-Jews and those married to "Aryans" remained; most were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in February 1945 and survived.