Eisenach, Germany

The earliest evidence of the presence of Jews in Eisenach dates from 1241. There was a “Jew Street” at the center of the city. In the course of the Black Death persecutions of 1348-49, most Jews were driven out of Eisenach. Allowed to return again a few years later, they were permanently expelled in 1458. Until the beginning of the 19th century, Jews were not allowed to settle in Eisenach. The Jewish community, which began to evolve round the middle of the century, acquired a cemetery and set up a prayer hall. By the time it was formally constituted as a community in 1867, there were 72 members. The community numbered 287 in 1877 and dedicated a new synagogue in 1885. The Jewish population was 440 in 1905. Strident anti-Semitic propaganda and occurrences were common in Eisenach, and the windows of the synagogue were repeatedly smashed during the 1920s. In June 1930, an assembly of all Thuringian Jews was organized in Eisenach by the Central Union (C.V.), as a protest against the growing Nazi influence in Thuringia. After the Nazi takeover in 1933, Jewish businesses were boycotted; Jews were ostracized socially and professionally and suffered public humiliation. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), the synagogue was set on fire and destroyed; all Jewish stores, some homes and the cemetery were vandalized; and Jews were rounded up, beaten, and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. About a third of the Jewish population managed to make it to safe havens, mainly to Palestine and the U.S. Many moved to other cities inside Germany or to neighboring countries, only to be caught up again after the outbreak of war. Of the 215 Jews listed as residing in Eisenach in the May 1939 census, only 145 were left by September 1941. They were forced by the local authorities to live in a few “Jew houses". On 9 May 1942, the first deportation train set out for the Belzec death camp; none returned. Those over 65 and those who had been decorated in WWI were deported in September 1942 to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. Very few of the deportees survived.