Hungen, Germany

Hungen Hesse, Germany. Jews lived there from the 15th century and a community was established in 1700. Numbering 105 in 1880, it was affiliated with the Orthodox rabbinate of Giessen, but services held in the synagogue (built in 1832) were accompanied by an organ and choir. After WWI, a local branch of the German Zionist Organization was established. In March 1933, some prominent Social Democrats (including a number of Jews) were arrested. The anti-Jewish boycott won popular support, and on the "Night of the Long Knives" (30 June 1934) SA and SS troops beat Jews attending Sabbath services. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), Nazis vandalized the synagogue's interior and attacked community leaders. Of the 66 Jews living in Hungen after 1933, at least 29 emigrated (mainly to the U.S. or Palestine) by 1939; more than 20 were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1942.