Hoechst Odenwald, Germany

HOECHST im Odenwald, Hesse, Germany. Established before 1700, the community numbered 174 (11% of the total population) in 1861 and was affiliated with Darmstadt’s Orthodox rabbinate. After 1933 Jews started emigrating. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938) the Torah scrolls were burned and the synagogue vandalized. Townsfolk lent a hand in the pogrom. Most of the 90 Jews living there in 1933 had fled by 1940; the remaining 14 were deported in 1942 A Holocaust memorial was erected by the town council in 1985.