Zwickau, Germany

ZWICKAU Saxony, Germany. Jews were living in Zwickau from the beginning of the 14th century. There were several expulsions, the final one occurring in 1543. Jewish settlement was only renewed in the second half of the 19th century. In 1907 the Jewish population was 120. In 1905 a synagogue and a cemetery were established. The immigration of East European Jews increased the Jewish population to 496 in 1925. Community associations included a number of charitable organizations, branches of the Central Union (C.V.) and the German Zionist Organization (from about 1912), and youth organizations. The orthodox members of the community maintained a prayer room. The publisher and philanthropist Salman Schoken (1877-1959) lived in Zwickau. He and his brother Simon set up a department store, which developed into the Schoken chain of department stores. Salman Schoken, a longtime Zionist supporter, helped Jews preparing for emigration by arranging for vocational training and financial aid. The Schoken department store chain was “aryanized” in August 1938. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, there were 473 Jews in Zwickau. Of the 300 Jews in Zwickau in October 1938, 68 did not have German citizenship and were deported to Poland. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938) the community’s facilities and Jewish stores were wrecked. About 100 Jews were arrested and taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp. By 1939 there were only 64 Jews left in Zwickau. Those who did not manage to escape abroad were deported in 1941 with the exception of 15 Jews who were still living in the town in October 1942, probably protected by marriage to non-Jews.