Friedberg, Germany

FRIEDBERG Hesse, Germany. Jews were living there in 1241 and an Imperial charter (1275) guaranteed their safety in return for the payment of an annual tax. However, the Jews were often held for ransom and the burgrave's protection did not save them from the Armleder massacres of 1336 or the Black Death persecutions of 1348-49. A new agreement in 1359 restored the community but 200 years later, when Emperor Ferdinand I. made Jews subject to the House of Hanau, their tax burden was extortionate. During the 16th century a protective wall was built around the Jewish quarter (Judengasse) and the Jewish population doubled to about 60 families. At the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648, when Christian citizens organized a boycott of Jewish traders, Ferdinand III not only exempted the Jews from war levies but also prohibited unauthorized measures against them. By 1880 the community numbered 438. After growing to 491 in 1910, the community lost Orthodox members and affiliated itself with the Liberal rabbinate of Giessen. During the Weimar Republic, branches of the Central Union (CV), Jewish War Veterans Association, and German Zionist Organization were active. From 1 April 1933, the Nazi boycott had a disastrous effect and Jews started to emigrate. The Jewish population had dwindled to about 150 on Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), when Nazis destroyed the two synagogues and staged a pogrom. By 1940, over 80 Jews had emigrated; more than 60 were eventually deported. After WWII, a memorial was erected by the city council.