Dresden, Germany

DRESDEN, Saxony, Germany. Jews living in Dresden probably received a site to erect a synagogue around 1300. After the Black Death persecutions (1348-49), the first reference to Jews is not until 1375. Although in the 14th and 15th centuries there were “Jewish houses” in two streets, which also included a synagogue and probably a mikve, there was no ghetto. The community also maintained a cemetery. The community was persecuted again in 1430, and it was not until after 1475 that Jews resettled in the town. This settlement ended in 1550. For the next 150 years, there were no Jews living in Dresden. The only Jewish presence occurred when merchants and traders on their way to Leipzig and its fairs spent some time in the town. Jews began to settle in Dresden in large numbers when the political ability of the Saxony government to limit the influx of Jews suffered a serious setback in the wake of the Seven Years War (1756-63). By 1763, there were 803 Jews living in Dresden. The city subsequently issued residence restrictions on impoverished Jews. Despite the restrictions, community life began to take shape. In 1840, the synagogue was consecrated. The emancipation process proceeded sluggishly in Dresden. It was only in 1834 that the ban on Jews living in the new city and the suburbs of Dresden was abolished. In 1849, the first Jew became a city councilor. The community leaned toward Reform Judaism, introducing German singing in its religious services in 1867 and adding an organ in 1869. There was little social or economical mobility within the community at this time and the economic stratification of its members was reinforced by the influx of East European Jews, which began in 1870. In 1900, the community numbered 3,059; 60% were of East European origin. In the beginning of the 20th century a branch of the Central Union (C. V.) was founded and in the Weimar period, various Zionist associations developed. The community, with a population of 5,120 in 1925, maintained also a wide range of institutions including an old age home, day nursery, youth center, and sports field. Jews controlled the cigarette industry and there were six Jewish banks. Several Jews served on the Dresden city council or in the Saxony parliament. Several prominent Jews were active in the arts and the sciences, such as Victor Klemperer (1881 - 1960), professor at the Dresden Technical University from 1922 to 1933. Anti-Semitism developed in the Weimar years into massive attacks that included malicious campaigns against the Arnhold family of bankers, present in Dresden since the middle of the 19th century. In 1931, Nazis disrupted religious services on a number of occasions. In the course of the boycott of Jewish businesses on 1 April 1933, stores were vandalized, windows were smashed, and Jewish residents were beaten. Arrests and acts of maltreatment began in the early years of the Nazi regime. Dr. Max Sachs, for many years a member of the Saxony parliament, was taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1935, where he died as a result of the brutal treatment he received. In 1935, three Jewish banks, including the Dresdener Bank, founded in 1872, were "aryanized". In October 1938, 724 Jews with non-German citizenship were deported to Poland. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), the synagogue burned down completely; Jewish businesses and homes were looted and wrecked; and 151 Jews were seized and taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp. After the pogrom, the synagogue ruins were torn down, the community being presented with the bill for the operation. By May 1939, as a consequence of emigration, the community had lost nearly two-thirds of its members and there were now only 1,600 Jews in Dresden. Many were conscripted for forced labor, and from 1940 a start was made on resettling them in "Jewish houses". In 1942, the Jewish school was closed down. The first deportation from Dresden took place in January 1942. In the twelve deportations between January 1942 and January 1944, a total of 1,300 Jews were transported to various camps in the east. The last deportation was scheduled to take place in February 1945, but the big air raid of 13 February enabled all 70 deportees to escape. The community was re-established in 1945 with 176 members. Numbers gradually dwindled as a result of aging, until in 1987 the community numbered 49 members. The influx of Jews from the former USSR increased membership figures in the 1990s.