Eisleben, Germany

In the Middle Ages, there is evidence of Jews from 1314 up to their expulsion in 1547. Resettlement did not occur until 1809 with the community numbering 138 in 1854. The community set up a synagogue in 1814 and two cemeteries in 1814 and 1877. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, there were 80-90 Jews in Eisleben. Their businesses were boycotted and at times the Jews were physically attacked. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), the synagogue was not burned down, probably because it was part of a row of houses, but the interior was destroyed. Jewish apartments and shops (were destroyed, and the cemetery was desecrated. Four men were arrested and taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Soon after the rioting, the last Jewish stores were aryanized. In 1939, the synagogue was sold and the community was affiliated with the Halle community. There were only 30 Jews in Eisleben in October 1939. In 1941, the 17 remaining Jews were billeted in a Jewish house" and compelled to carry out forced labor, irrespective of age and health. All but four, who were probably protected by marriage to non-Jews, were deported, most of them in September 1942 to the Theresienstadt ghetto.