Goerlitz, Germany

Goerlitz Lower Silesia, Germany. Jews probably arrived with the foundation of the city in the first half of the 13th century. A Street of the Jews is mentioned in 1305, a synagogue and cemetery in 1308, and a mikve in 1345. The Jews were expelled in the Black Death persecutions of 1348-49, returning in 1364 only to be expelled a final time in 1389. No permanent Jewish settlement existed for the next 450 years, until the 1840s. In 1848, the Jewish population was 52, which then rose to a peak of 691 (1% of the total) in 1885. The community had a synagogue from 1853. A new one was consecrated in 1868. The congregation belonged to the Reform movement and its members played a leading role in the city’s industrial development, especially in textiles. However, from the 1890s, the Jewish population began to decline, numbering 612 in 1912 and 567 in 1925. Among the organizations active in the community were the Central Union (C.V.), the Zionist movement, and the Jewish War Veterans Association. In 1933, the Jewish population was 376 (total 94,182). In March 1933, the Jewish chairman of the local transport union was forced to resign and in May it was taken over by the Nazi Party. Thirty-seven Jews, including two judges and five lawyers, were arrested on Boycott Day (1 April 1933). In 1935, after the introduction of the Nazi racial laws, a local Jew was harassed for “racial defilement.” He was arrested a second time and murdered in a Breslau prison in October 1935. The Jewish population continued to dwindle, from 285 in 1934 to 207 in fall 1938. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), Jewish homes and stores were destroyed, the synagogue was partially burned, and 24 Jews were sent to concentration camps. The “Aryanization” of Jewish businesses was completed on 9 August 1939, when a sock factory was seized from its Jewish owner. The Jewish population was now 131. On the outbreak of war, the Jews were moved to “Jewish houses” and on 10 December 1941, the Nazis began transferring local Jews to the nearby Tormersdorf camp, where they were put to forced labor until deported to Auschwitz and the Theresienstadt ghetto in fall 1942. In October 1942, 33 Jews, apparently intermarried, remained.