Sulzburg, part II

Before the National Socialists wiped it out, Sulzburg had a flourishing Jewish community. The first records of Jews in the town date to 1528. In 1546, the Margrave Ernst granted permission for the community to erect a synagogue. The city began expelling Jews in 1577 and it wasn't until 1716 that Jews appeared again in city records.

According to the city website's English .pdf, "In 1864, the Jewish community--with its 416 members--made up a third of the town’s population. In 1933, there were still about 100 Jews living in Sulzburg. They were 'abandoned without protection'--thus the inscription on the memorial stone at the Jewish cemetery of Sulzburg. The persecution they suffered under the Nazi regime led the greater part of them to leave Germany between 1933 and 1940. In October 1940, the remaining 27 Jews were deported to Gurs. According to recent reviews, at least 30 of those who lived here in 1933 perished in the internment camp of Gurs or were murdered in extermination camps."

On Kristallnacht--10 November 1938--Sulzburg's synagogue was desecrated but not completely destroyed. It was later variously used as library storage, a stall, and a factory. Acquired by the city in the 1970s, it was restored in the 1980s as a cultural monument and memorial. A notice near the synagogue states that it is "the only surviving synagogue in the neoclassical style of Friedrich Weinbrenner's architectural school in Baden-Wuerttemberg. Constructed in 1822 to replace a smaller prayer-room, it was the third synagogue built in the Grand Duchy of Baden."

Records of Sulzburg's Jewish cemetery date to the 16th century. The present gate quotes the Sabbath evening prayer: "Spread over us the shelter of Your peace." In addition to the many graves of people who lived long lives and died natural deaths, the cemetery has a memorial to honor "the Jews of Sulzburg and Staufen who were abandoned without protection and suffered death for their beliefs." Erected in 1970 "on the thirtieth anniversary of the destruction of the Jewish community," the memorial lists the names of those who perished in the Holocaust and quotes Daniel 12, verses 9 and 13: "Closed and sealed are the words in the continuum of time. Daniel, go your way until the end, and you shall rest and rise to a better fate." (Read the rest of Daniel 12 for some meaningful context.)