Giessen, Germany

GIESSEN, Hesse, Germany. Jews lived in Giessen from the mid 13th century, but their community was annihilated in the Black Death persecutions of 1348-49. A renewed permanent resettlement took place only in 1720, when local Jews started to organize a community and helped Giessen to become a center of the livestock trade. From 1828-96 Benedikt Samuel Levi, a champion of Jewish rights, was the chief Rabbi of the community. During this time an organ and choir were introduced in the synagogue, representing the Liberal orientation of the community. The city’s Jewish population grew from 384 in 1871 to 1035 in 1910. Jews were elected to the city council, the chamber of commerce and the state assembly (Landtag). Having previously been barred from teaching posts at the Giessen University, Jews made up 10% of the teaching staff at that institution during the Weimar Republic. Relations between the Liberal and Orthodox communities improved after WWI, both groups working together in local branches of the Central Union, the Jewish War Veterans Association and German Zionist Organization, and several youth movements. Jews played a leading role in cultural and professional life during the Weimar Republic. A large number of students at the university promoted Zionism. Anti-Semitism was prevalent in Giessen long before the Nazi era. When Hitler came to power in 1933, anti-Jewish violence mounted day by day as the Nazi boycott was imposed (1 April 1933). A book-burning ceremony took place on 8 May, and the last “non-Aryan” teachers were dismissed from the university on 20 July. Communal and Zionist workers fostered Aliyah while maintaining a semblance of Jewish life. The Liberal and Orthodox communities amalgamated shortly before Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), during which both synagogues were destroyed. Of the 1265 Jews living in Giessen and its vicinity in 1933, 730 had emigrated or moved elsewhere by the end of 1938. The community vanished when the last remaining Jews were deported in September 1942. On 2 March 1943 Giessen was declared “free of Jews” (Judenrein). It is estimated that 465 Jews from Giessen emigrated during the Nazi period, 346 perished in death camps. The fate of another 530 is uncertain. Mainly comprising students and former Displaced Persons, the Jewish community established after WWII numbered 200 in 1998.