Moenchengladbach, Germany

Jews are first mentioned in 1337 as moneylenders. A community with a synagogue inhabited a Jewish quarter in the 1340s. The community ended in 1349, either through massacre or flight during the upheavals accompanying the Black Death. Jews are again mentioned in 1413, living under the protection of the Duke of Juelich, but over the next 200 years there is no evidence of their presence in the city. Beginning in 1684 a new Jewish community began to develop. Until 1704, the Jews of Moenchengladbach were under the jurisdiction of the state rabbi of the Cologne archbishopric; from 1706 they were attached to the Duesseldorf state rabbinate. In 1818, the community became part of the Krefeld consistory. Until the mid-19th century, most Jews were butchers, others were cattle traders. In the second half of the 19th century, with the development of the textile industry in the 1850s, making the city a European textile center, Jewish industrialists came to the fore. Newcomers were responsible for starting most Jewish textile plants. Jewish merchants were also active in the textile industry and in the period between 1865 and 1907, 29 of the 38 newly opened Jewish-owned stores dealt in textiles. In 1898, a Jew founded a private business school. Jewish economic success led to membership, and sometimes leading positions, in local commercial and industrial associations. Jews were also prominent as members of the professional class and served as city assemblymen. Three Jewish judges were appointed between 1888 and 1918 and four Jewish lawyers were also active in the period. The Jewish population grew from 91 in 1854 to 840 (total 66,000) in 1910. From the 1870s, the community was the largest and most important in the regional congregation established in 1854 under Prussian law. In 1890, the regional congregation was dissolved and the Moenchengladbach-Rheydt congregation was formed with a number of independent satellite communities. A synagogue was consecrated in 1865. The congregation's Liberal tendencies were curtailed somewhat in the second half of the 19th century, owing largely to the efforts of Yonas Binyamin Yonas, the community's most prominent figure and its chairman from at least 1893 until WWI. Orthodox tendencies were bolstered by the arrival of Polish families in the early 1920s. A private Jewish elementary school was started in 1863, becoming a Jewish public school in 1888 after an enrollment of 73 children was reached. In the Weimar period, the Jewish textile industry continued to prosper. The Aschenburg factory (with a branch in Hungary) operated 204 looms and employed about 500 workers. In 1929, Jews owned (solely or in partnerships with non-Jews) 21 of the city's 98 clothing factories; 11 of its 90 weaving mills; six of 36 cloth-manufacturing factories; and three of 22 spinning mills. Jews also owned five of the city's 12 wholesale textile establishments and operated some of the largest retail outlets in the trade. In the 1920s, eight Jewish doctors were practicing locally. Jews were active in Moenchengladbach's social and cultural life, supporting the arts, starting the city's only modern dance band, and joining sports clubs. The Jewish elementary school maintained an attendance of 50-60 throughout the 1920s. Zionist activity was limited, with just 17 members in the local branch in 1922. On the eve of the Nazi era, the community maintained a number of welfare and charity organizations and local branches of the Central Union (CV.) and the Jewish War Veterans Association. In 1933, the Jewish population was 907 (total 126,631). Persecution commenced immediately with Jews arrested on various allegations, including racial defilement. In late July 1935, Jews were banned from local swimming pools, also earlier than in other places in Germany. Between December 1933 and December 1936, the Jewish population dropped by 16%. Zionist support increased considerably in the Nazi period. Although a Maccabi sports club with 60 members was founded in 1933, the community leadership remained by and large anti-Zionist. Fifteen Jews with Polish citizenship were expelled in late October 1938; at least ten remained behind. According to Gestapo lists, 57 Jewish business establishments were still in operation in January 1938. The liquidation sale in the big Weinberg textile store was so successful that the Nazi administration in Duesseldorf banned further liquidation sales. From December 1936 to Sept. 1938, the Jewish population dropped by a further 19% to 609. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), the synagogue was burned and Jewish homes and stores were destroyed. At least four Jews were beaten and at least 39 were arrested, some being detained in the Dachau concentration camp until mid-December. Another 120 Jews emigrated between September 1938 and March 1939. Total emigration for the June 1933-May 1939 period was 443. According to municipal figures, 375 Jews remained in May 1939. Between Kristallnacht and October 1940, 129 of 204 Jewish-owned buildings were sold. From early 1939, Jews were mobilized for forced labor on swamp reclamation and road building projects as well as quarry work, subterranean construction, debris clearance, and other physical labor. In 1940, Jews were moved to " Jewish houses." With the commencement of deportations via Duesseldorf in fall 1941, five Jews committed suicide. On 27 October, about 50 were deported to the Lodz ghetto; on 11 December, 130 to the Riga ghetto; on 21-22 April 1942, 80 to Izbica in the Lublin district (Poland); on 14 June, six to Izbica; on 24-25 July, 35 to the Theresienstadt ghetto. In all, 481 Jews were deported from Moenchengladbach, Rheydt, and Wickrath. Others who had emigrated were deported from German-occupied Europe. At least 14 of the deportees survived. A community of 40-45 Jews was established after the war, growing to 100 in 1960 and 270 in 1993. A new community center with a prayer hall was dedicated in 1967.