Karlsruhe, Germany

Jews arrived with a promise of equal rights when the city was founded in 1715 as the new capital of Baden-Durlach. Under the count's letters of protection the community grew rapidly to 282 members in 1733. With the publication of the edicts of Baden in 1807-09, most Jews were granted full civil rights. In 1806 a new synagogue was consecrated and in 1827 the city became the seat of the district rabbinate. A Jewish elementary school was opened in 1816, enrolling 100 children within a few years as the Jewish population grew steadily through the century, rising from 893 in 1825 to 2,577 in 1900 (total 107,765). In 1869, after an organ was introduced into the synagogue, 24 Orthodox families founded an Adass Jeshurun congregation, with its own elementary school. Jewish factories produced paper and synthetic wool, and processed leather and metals. Jews were also leading wholesalers (felt, books) and from the 18th century operated Hebrew printing presses. Though Jews participated fully in public life, it was often in the face of anti-Semitism, with particular outbursts in the Hep! Hep! riots of 1819. After WWI the East European component of the community grew to 22%, constituting a lower economic class aided by the rest of the community. In the Weimar period the Jews maintained their leading economic position. Jews owned four banks and 26% of the city's doctors and 40% of its lawyers were Jews. In 1925 the community reached a peak population of 3,386, but from that point on the birthrate declined steeply. Anti-Semitism intensified after WWI. In 1933, there were 3,199 Jews in the city. With the onset of Nazi rule, judges, teachers, doctors, and officials were fired from the public service and Jewish businessmen were forced to liquidate. The last Jewish bank was sold in 1939. The community continued its social and educational services and rendered assistance towards emigration. The community also published a biweekly newspaper, the Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt, and operated an elementary school enrolling 225 children in 1938-39. In September 1936 a group of 680 youngsters from Karlsruhe and other places in Germany left for Palestine within the framework of Youth Aliya. In all, at least 2,000 of Karlsruhe's Jews emigrated in 1933-39. On 28 October 1938, all Jewish men of Polish extraction were expelled to the Polish border, their families joining them later and most ultimately perishing in the ghettoes and concentration camps. On “Kristallnacht” (9-10 November 1938), the Adass Jeshurun synagogue was burned to the ground, the main synagogue was damaged, and Jewish men were taken to the Dachau concentration camp after being beaten and tormented. Deportations commenced on 22 October 1940, when 893 Jews were loaded onto trains for the three-day journey to the Gurs concentration camp in France. Another 387 were deported in 1942-45 to lzbica in the Lublin district (Poland), Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz. Of the 1,280 Jews deported directly from Karlsruhe, 1,175 perished. Another 138 perished after deportation from other German cities or occupied Europe. In all, 1,421 of Karlsruhe’s Jews died during the Holocaust. A new community was formed after the war by surviving former residents, with a new synagogue erected in 1971. It numbered 359 in 1980.