Jewish Families in Roth
by Annegret Wenz-Haubfleisch
Origins of the Jewish families in Roth
Nameless Jewish inhabitants of Schenkisch Eigen, an area including the villages of Roth, Wenkbach, and Argenstein, are first recorded in 1594-95. We do find records of family names in the 17th century, but their settlements were apparently not continuous. The ancestors of the Jews living in Roth in the 20th century can first be identified beginning in the 18th century.
Of the nine Jewish families living in Roth in 1744, only the families of Salomon Susmann and Loeb Juda (also known as Loeb Salomon) received rights to continue living in the village. There is no further record of the Salomon Susmann’s family, and Loeb Juda’s family name died out without a male heir at the end of the 18th century.
A son of the evicted Seligmann family, Aron Seligmann, apparently either stayed in the village or returned to it later. He and his wife Scheile were childless, so they adopted a nephew (the son of Scheile’s sister) from Breidenbach in the Grand Duchy of Darmstadt. During the Westphalian Period, from 1806-1813, this nephew took on the name Stern and became the forefather of the three Stern families still living in Roth in the 20th century.
The founder of the Höchster/Höxter line, which also existed into the 20th century in Roth, was Meyer Isaac. He was Swabian by birth and moved to Roth from the County of Wittgenstein with his wife in 1775. His wife, whose name we do not know, was a sister of Aron Seligmann who had been working there as a servant. Meyer Isaac was granted a residence permit – a document known in German as a Toleranzschein, lit. a certificate of tolerance. They had three children: Sara, Reitz, and Isaac. Isaac took on the name Höchster.
Isaac’s sisters married men who permanently settled in Roth from elsewhere. Reitz married Seligmann Bergenstein from Leihgestern. He had worked in Roth as a servant. Sara wedded Marcus Waescher from Ziegenhain, who moved to Roth in 1815. The latter family-line died out the end of the 19th century.
In the first half of the 19th century two daughters of the Stern family married two sons from the Höchster family, with the result that all Jewish families in Roth were blood-relatives.
The widowed Giedel Höchster, née Stern, married Baruch Nathan from Lohra in 1855, thus establishing the Nathan family in Roth.
The family lines of Stern, Höchster, Bergenstein, and Nathan were the basis of the Jewish community in Roth from the 19th century onward. Markus Roth from Nieder-Ohmen married into the family of Herz Stern II in 1922. This Stern family’s only son Hermann died in the First World War. Markus Roth started a family with the Sterns’ daughter Selma.
Jewish Families in the 20th century
In the 20th century, nine Jewish families and a single person from the Bergenstein family lived in Roth.
The development that took place in the 20th century is almost incomprehensible despite all the academic research on National Socialism. Roth was not one of the particularly “brown” places before 1933. An analysis of the Reichstag election results of the Weimar Republic shows that although the people of Roth had strong German nationalist leanings, many also tended towards the SPD and the KPD. The remaining few were distributed among the liberal parties. In the Reichstag elections from 1928 to 1932, the NSDAP in Roth was well below the district average. It is fitting that as late as 1934, many residents took part in the sudden death of the young mother Selma Roth and paid their last respects.
By 1935, the situation had already changed considerably. It is on record that there were signs on the premises of a businessman and on a farm saying “Jews are not wanted here”. Markus Roth, the fertilizer dealer, was accused of breaking the law in court and denounced in the press, whereupon his business practically came to a standstill. When Emma Stern, Roth's mother-in-law, died in 1937, no Christian resident accompanied her to the cemetery, and the Jews, who were untrained in the trade, even had to make the coffin themselves.
The Jewish children's former playmates joined the Hitler Youth, were indoctrinated with National Socialist propaganda and turned their backs on them. They were isolated as a result, their everyday lives became dull and dreary. At the Roth elementary school, one of the two teachers, Knott, was a convinced National Socialist who bombarded the children with diatribes against Jews and humiliated the Jewish pupils all the more. However, they were only able to attend the school until around 1937 anyway.
Perhaps the Jewish families did not immediately realize that their lives were under threat. In any case, from the mid-1930s they realized that they could no longer maintain their economic existence and that they and their children no longer had a future in Germany. So they tried to leave the country. Not all of them had the financial means or the necessary connections. For the Bergenstein and Nathan families, it was probably hopeless from the outset. Some of the Höchster, Roth and Stern families made it out, but only one of the Stern families was able to flee to safety. Eleven Jewish residents of Roth survived in South Africa, the USA and England.
Life became increasingly difficult for those who stayed behind as the laws and regulations became more and more rigid and the economic hardship more and more pressing. A few courageous villagers secretly sent them food.
In the summer of 1941, Roth became a ghetto village. 20 people from Neustadt were forcibly quartered in Jewish families, ten of them with the Höchster family alone, six with the Sterns and two each with the Nathans and Bergensteins. After the first deportation to Riga in December 1941, to which most of the people fell victim, some of them stayed behind in the homes of Roth families. They were deported to Theresienstadt together with the last Stern family in 1942. There were a total of three deportations in the administrative district of Kassel, although there were no Roth Jews on the middle transport to the district of Lublin (Izbica/Sobibor) at the end of May 1942.
15 Jews from Roth were killed in concentration camps. In just a few years, Roth had developed from a “friendly, quiet” village into a nasty, inhumane and inhumane place for the Jews living in the immediate vicinity due to the actions of convinced National Socialists.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version). The section “Jewish families in the 20th century” is taken from the brochure: Memorial Stones - "Stolpersteine". To those Jewish families who were expelled from Roth to other countries or deported and murdered during the Nazi era, the working group has dedicated stumbling blocks and this commemorative brochure with in-depth biographical information to 2010 and 2013.
Literature
References in English dealing with the History of the Jewish Communities in Roth and Fronhausen in bold.
Last Update: April 9th, 2015
An abundance of sources on the history of the Jewish communities in both of these villages can be found in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg and the Main Hessian State Archives in Wiesbaden, including, for instance, 18th century birth, marriage, and death certificates and official reparation records, as well as in the archives of the Community of Weimar (Lahn). (The Community of Fronhausen does not maintain a public archive.
The following list is limited to literature that explicitly deals with one or both of these communities. Only a few titles are included to provide a supplementary overview, as they are highly relevant for the specific topic at hand.
ALTARAS, Thea: Synagogen und jüdische Rituelle Tauchbäder in Hessen - Was geschah seit 1945? Aus dem Nachlass hrsg. von Gabriele Klempert und Hans-Curt Köster, 2. Aufl. Königstein 2007
ARNDT, Steffen: Kaiserliche Privilegien versus landesherrliche Superiorität im 18. Jahrhundert. Das Beispiel der Familien Schenck zu Schweinsberg und Riedesel zu Eisenbach, in: Zeitschrift des Vereins für Hessische Geschichte und Landeskunde 111, 2006, S. 127-152 (zum Streit um die Schutzherrschaft über Juden)
ARNSBERG, Paul: Die jüdischen Gemeinden in Hessen. Anfang, Untergang, Neubeginn, Bde. 1-2, Darmstadt 1971, Bd. 3 (Bilder, Dokumente), Darmstadt 1973
Bachmann, Ewald: Das Prinzip Hoffnung. Drei ehemaligen Synagogen im Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf, in: Spirita. Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft, Jg. 3, 1989, Januar-Heft, S. 48-51
Becker, Siegfried: Konversion des Juden Feist von Roth 1755, in: Heimatwelt (Weimar/Lahn) H. 40, 2005, S. 26-30
Becker, Siegfried: Halwaja. Hamet. Erinnern an die Opfer der Shoah als Beschreibung der zerbrochenen Zeit. Vortrag anlässlich der Feier zum 10-jährigen Jubiläum des Arbeitskreises Landsynagoge Roth, 11. Juni 2006, in: Heimatwelt (Weimar/Lahn), H. 41, 2006, S. 30-33
Becker, Siegfried: Die Rechtsformel des Judeneids im Schenkisch Eigen, in: Heimatwelt (Weimar/Lahn), H. 43, 2008, S. 25-35
Becker, Siegfried: Artikel in der Chronik Von Essen nach Hessen. 850 Jahre Fronhausen 1159-2009, hrsg. von der Gemeinde Fronhausen, red. Renate Hildebrandt, Friedrich von Petersdorff und Siegfried Becker, Fronhausen 2009: Salpeterzins des Juden Susmann, S. 279-286; Ein Konflikt um das Ortsbürgerrecht der Juden im Vormärz, S. 325-332
Bibliographie zur Geschichte der Juden in Hessen, bearb. v. Ulrich Eisenbach, Hartmut Heinemann und Susanne Walther (Schriften der Kommission für die Geschichte der Juden in Hessen, Bd. XII), Wiesbaden 1992
Buch der Erinnerung. Die ins Baltikum deportierten deutschen, österreichischen und tschechoslowakischen Juden, bearb. v. Wolfgang Scheffler und Diana Schulle, hrsg. v. Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. und dem Riga-Komitee der deutschen Städte gemeinsam mit der Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin – Centrum Judaicum und der Gedenkstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz, 2 Bde., München 2003
Degen, Paulina / Iris Jargon / Melanie Wenz: "Vergangenheiten, die nicht aufhören wollen" (Amos Os) / der jüdische Friedhof in Roth, in: Experiment. Zeitung der Elisabethschule, Marburg, Nr. 11: Februar 1994, S. 28-38
Demandt, Karl E.: Die hessische Judenstättigkeit von 1744, in: Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 23, 1973, S. 292-332
Die ehemaligen Synagogen im Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf, hrsg. v. Kreisausschuß des Landkreises Marburg-Biedenkopf, red. Ulrich Klein, Marburg 1999 (zu Fronhausen, S. 19-29, zu Roth S. 103-113)
Gardella, Adriana: Freedom’s Fighters, in: Chicago, Okt. 2002, S. 96-101 und 134-136 (This reference mentions, among others, the holocaust refugee from Roth, Otto Stern.)
Händler-Lachmann, Barbara: Jüdische Friedhöfe und Synagogen, in: Kulturführer Marburg-Biedenkopf. Ausschnitte aus der kulturhistorischen Vielfalt eines Landkreises. Hrsg. vom Kreisausschuß des Landkreises Marburg-Biedenkopf. 2., überarb. Aufl. 1995, S. 137-145
Händler-Lachmann, Barbara / Ulrich Schütt: „unbekannt verzogen“ oder „weggemacht“. Schicksale der Juden im alten Landkreis Marburg 1933-1945, Marburg 1992
Händler-Lachmann, Barbara / Harald Händler / Ulrich Schütt: ,Purim, Purim, ihre liebe Leut, wißt ihr was Purim bedeut‘? Jüdisches Leben im Landkreis Marburg im 20. Jahrhundert, Marburg 1995.
Haubfleisch, Dietmar: Ehemalige Landsynagoge Roth, in: GedenkstättenRundbrief Nr. 95, 6/2000, S. 37
Höck, Alfred: Grabinschrift einer jüdischen Frau. Ein ehrenvoller Nachruf für Esther Löwenstein / Auf dem Friedhof von Roth, in: Hessenland, Jg. 15, 1967, Folge 13, o.S.
Höck, Alfred: Juden im Marburger und Kirchhainer Gebiet nach einer Übersicht aus dem Jahre 1838, in: Heimatjahrbuch 1979 - Kreis Marburg-Biedenkopf, S. 144-146.
Höck, Alfred: Zur Geschichte der Juden in Roth (Weimar, OT Roth), Ms. o.J. ca. 1986
Jüdische Geschichte in Hessen erforschen. Ein Wegweiser zu Archiven, Forschungsstätten und Hilfsmitteln, bearb. von Bernhard Post (Schriften der Kommission für die Geschichte der Juden in Hessen 14), Wiesbaden 1994.
Kingreen, Monica: Die gewaltsame Verschleppung der Juden aus den Dörfern und Städten des Regierungsbezirks Kassel in den Jahren 1941 und 1942, in: Das achte Licht. Beiträge zur Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Juden in Nordhessen, hrsg. v. Helmut Burmeister und Michael Dorhs, Hofgeismar 2002, S. 223-242
Kosog, Herbert: Die Juden von Roth, in: Heimatwelt (Weimar/Lahn), H. 5, 1979, S. 11-21
Neumann, Michael: Wir brauchen Denk-Räume. Zur Restaurierung der Synagoge von Roth an der Lahn (Kreis Marburg-Biedenkopf), in: Denkmalpflege und Kulturgeschichte 2, 1998, S. 2-4
Neumann, Michael: Erinnerungsarbeit. Denkmale jüdischer Vergangenheit, in: 25 Jahre Denkmalpflege in Hessen, hrsg. vom Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen und dem Hessischen Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Wiesbaden 1999, S. 94-96
Neunhundert Jahre Geschichte der Juden in Hessen. Beiträge zum politischen, wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Leben (Schriften der Kommission für die Geschichte der Juden in Hessen 6), Wiesbaden 1983
Poliak, Claudia: Die Arbeit des „Arbeitskreises Landsynagoge Roth“. Erinnern um der Zukunft willen, in: Jahrbuch für den Kreis Marburg-Biedenkopf 2008, S. 155-157
Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden im Hessischen Staatsarchiv Marburg 1267-1600, bearb. von Uta Löwenstein (Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden in hessischen Archiven 1), 3 Bde., 1989.
Rehme, Günther / Konstantin Haase: "... mit Rumpf und Stumpf ausrotten ...". Zur Geschichte der Juden in Marburg und Umgebung nach 1933 (Marburger Stadtschriften zur Geschichte und Kultur 6), 1982.
Richarz, Monika / Reinhard Rürup (Hrsg.): Jüdisches Leben auf dem Lande. Studien zur deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo-Baeck-Instituts 56), 1997
Roth, Herbert: Die Juden von Roth (Kreis Marburg-Biedenkopf), aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Annegret Wenz, Manuskript 1987
Roth, Walter: Departure and Return. Trips to and Memories from Roth, Germany, o. O. (Chicago) 2013
Roth, Walter: Toni and Markus. From Village Life to Urban Stress, o.O. (Chicago) 2014
Roth-Howe, Deborah: Wrestling with Legacy: An Intergenerational, Cross-Cultural Response to the Holocaust, in: Smith College Studies in Social Work, vol. 77, Nos. 2/3, 2007, S.7-24
Roth-Howe, Deborah et al..: An Unlikely Alliance. Germans and Jews Collaborate to Teach the Lessons of the Holocaust, in: Telling Stories to Change the World. Global Voices on the Power of Narrative to Build Community and Make Social Justice Claims, hrsg. v. Rickie Solinger u.a., New York, London 2008, S. 55-64
Schlag, Annemarie: Artikel in der Chronik Von Essen nach Hessen. 850 Jahre Fronhausen 1159-2009, hrsg. von der Gemeinde Fronhausen, red. Renate Hildebrandt, Friedrich von Petersdorff und Siegfried Becker, Fronhausen 2009: Die jüdische Gemeinde in Fronhausen, S. 821-823; Der jüdische Betsaal in Fronhausen, S. 824-827; Die jüdische Elementarschule in Fronhausen, S. 827-830
Schmitt, Gabriele C.: Ehemalige jüdische Mitbürger und Nachfahren kommen nach Roth: 15-jähriges Jubiläum des Arbeitskreises Landsynagoge Roth, in: Jahrbuch für den Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf 2012, S. 217-220; textlich identisch, mit anderer Bildfolge in: Heimatwelt (Weimar/Lahn), H. 48, 2012, S. 3-7
Schmitz, Thomas: Alltag zwischen Bettel und Handel. Synagogengemeinde Roth war die zweitstärkste im Kreis. In: Oberhessische Presse 1983, Nr. 24 (Stadtausgabe).
Schüler entdeckten Mauerreste eines jüdischen Frauen-Bades. Die zehn Jugendlichen graben seit vier Tagen im Hof hinter der Rother Synagoge, In: Oberhessische Presse vom 13. Juni 1996
700 Jahre Roth. Dorfgeschichte in Texten und Bildern. 1302-2002, hrsg. v. Festausschuss 700 Jahre Roth, Marburg 2002
Treue, Wolfgang: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Marburg (Germania Judaica. Historisch-topographisches Handbuch zur Geschichte der Juden im Alten Reich, Tl. IV, 1520-1650), Tübingen 2009.
Versöhnung durch Erinnerungsarbeit (ohne Autor), in: Denkmalpflege in Hessen. Berichte 1997/1998, hrsg. v. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen, S. 43f.
Wagner, Barbara u.a.: Die jüdischen Friedhöfe und Familien in Fronhausen, Lohra, Roth, Marburg 2009
Weimar, Otto: Weimar präsentiert seine Gotteshäuser: In: Jahrbuch für den Kreis Marburg-Biedenkopf, Marburg-Biedenkopf 2008, S. 137-144; (Landsynagoge Roth, S.141)
Wenz-Haubfleisch, Annegret: Artikel in Die ehemalige Landsynagoge Roth und Gedenkstätte und Museum Trutzhain, hrsg. von Monika Hölscher (Hessische GeschichteN 1933-1945, H. 2), Wiesbaden 2013: Die jüdische Gemeinde in Roth, ihre Synagoge und ihr Friedhof, S. 2-6, Vom Holzdepot und Getreidespeicher zur Gedenk-, Lern- und Begegnungsstätte, S. 11-15; „Niemals schweigen gegenüber Hass und Diskriminierung“ – Lebensbeispiel Herbert Roth, S. 21-25.
Wenz-Haubfleisch, Annegret: Names and Fates, Gedenkbroschüre Stolperstein-Verlegung in Weimar-Roth am 24./25. Aug. 2013, Weimar-Roth 2013, engl. Ausgabe 2014
Wenz-Haubfleisch, Annegret (Zusammenstellung und Redaktion): Stolpersteine für die ermordeten und vertriebenen Mitbürgerinnen und Mitbürger von Roth am 24. und 25. August 2013 – eine Dokumentation, in: Heimatwelt, H. 49, 2014, S. 37-48
Zippert, Christian: Erinnerung um der Zukunft willen. Ansprache anläßlich der Übergabe der wiederhergestellten Synagoge Roth an die Öffentlichkeit am 10. März 1998 (engl.: Remembrance for the Sake of the Future. Speech on the occasion of the opening to the public of the restored synagogue in Roth on 10 March 1998), hrsg. vom Kreisausschuss des Landkreises Marburg-Biedenkopf, Marburg 1998
Von der Ausgrenzung zur Deportation in Marburg und im Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf: Neue Beiträge zur Verfolgung und Ermordung von Juden und Sinti im Nationalsozialismus. Ein Gedenkbuch, hrsg. von Klaus-Peter Friedrich, Marburg 2017; darin: Annemarie Schlag, Fronhausen, S. 249-265, Familie Löwenstein in Oberwalgern, S. 383-385 Gabriele C. Schmitt, Die Briefe der Henni Höchster geb. Walldorf, S. 306-317 Annegret Wenz-Haubfleisch, Roth an der Lahn, S. 161-185.
Memorial Stones - "Stolpersteine"
To those Jewish families who were expelled from Roth to other countries or deported and murdered during the Nazi era, the working group has dedicated stumbling blocks and a commemorative brochure with in-depth biographical information to 2010 and 2013.
Please use the pointes!
See the Pen CSS LED Lights by Eph Baum (@ephbaum) on CodePen.
In 2013, two families did not agree to the stones being laid in front of their properties. These nine stones were laid in front of the synagogue as a religious centre, with the actual address given, in the hope that they can be moved to their rightful place at a later date
Jewish Cemetery Roth-Lahn
by Annegret Wenz-Haubfleisch
Location and Description
Foto: Annegret Wenz-Haubfleisch
The first record of a Jewish Cemetery in Roth is found on a map from 1766/1769.
This map indicates the area of the Juden Begräbnüs (Jewish entombment) as having a size of ¼ Acker and 3 Ruthen (about 643 m² or 769 sq. yds.)
The cemetery was the only lot on an otherwise undivided piece of ground that was used as grazing land. The property owner listed in the relevant cadastre is the Village of Roth, meaning that the village owned the plot and merely allowed the Jewish Community to use the land. There are no gravestones remaining from this period. In the 19th century, the Jews from Roth, Fronhausen, and Lohra formed a single worship community and shared a synagogue and cemetery in Roth until the Jews from Fronhausen established their own cemetery on Kratzeberg in Fronhausen in 1873. At the same time, the Jews in Roth expanded their own cemetery to 1646 m² (1969 sq. yds.)
During the Nazi period many Jewish cemeteries were closed and secularized. In July 1939, the county commissioner in Marburg decreed that the Jewish cemetery in Roth should be closed. Thereafter deceased members of the Jewish Community were laid to rest in the collective cemetery in Marburg. The last Jewish person to be buried in Roth was Betty Nathan, née Stern, who died at age 81 on April 29th, 1939. She has no surviving gravestone.
The Jewish cemeteries began to be secularized in 1940. In Germany, for practical reasons of space, there is a time limit as to how long an individual grave may remain in a cemetery. This is called the Liegefrist or Ruhefrist. A Jewish cemetery must be granted an exception to this rule since the Jewish religion requires that graves are eternal: The site of a grave may not be leveled and used again.
Following the forced secularization of the Jewish cemeteries in 1940, the land of a cemetery was divided into three parts. The oldest part consisted of graves 30 years or older because thirty years was the length of the Liegefrist at that time. Graves older than 30 years had to be leveled for reuse. The second section consisted of land with younger graves. The third part was land that had been reserved for future burials.
The secularization of the cemetery in Roth was officially decreed in 1941. The three parts were sold to three adjoining neighbors. The part in which the Liegefrist was over was explicitly allowed to be leveled and the gravestones to be used for other purposes. Only special stones were to be saved.
During the Nazi regime the gravestones were indeed taken and the cemetery desecrated. Otto Stern, who was stationed as an American soldier in Germany in 1945, visited his hometown and ordered the ravaged cemetery to be restored and newly fenced in. The Jewish Cemetery is now about 891 m² (1066 sq. yds.) in size. It has been in the possession of the Landesverband der jüdischen Gemeinden in Hessen (Association of Jewish Communities in Hessen) since 1960.
Today there are 43 original gravestones. Two new ones for Emma Stern and her daughter Selma Roth were laid in 1984. The oldest headstone, marking the grave of Anschel Löwenstein from Fronhausen, is from the year 1836. There is also a stone marking the grave of Herz Stern from Roth who died in 1844.
According to official records from the 19th century, at least 43 other burials took place in this cemetery. It is improbable that the gravestones still mark the original burial sites because they are not ordered chronologically, but rather according to family with large lapses of time between the dates of passing.
The style of the headstones is by and large very simple. There are few ornaments, and the letters are usually engraved rather than raised in the stone. The main inscription is usually in Hebrew, and it is set within a carved round arch. Occasionally a headstone has two carved arches resembling the Tablets of the Ten Commandments. At the end of the 19th century, we find elements of historicism such as the depiction of a roof carried by two pillars.
In 1984, Herbert and Walter Roth, two brothers who had been able to escape to the USA, dedicated a monument to the memory of the parents and siblings of the Stern and Höchster families who had been deported to concentration camps and then murdered there between 1941 and 1945.
With donations from the next generation, the names of the murdered members of the Bergenstein and Nathan families could also be added to the back side of the memorial stone in 2010.
The cemetery was desecrated again in early January 2012. Four headstones were knocked over and 16 were vandalized with purple satanic crosses as well as one swastika. The Arbeitskreis Landsynagoge Roth (The Society for the Rural Synagogue in Roth) held a vigil in defiance of these actions on January 15th, 2012. Approximately 300 people built a human chain around the cemetery.
All pictures: Annegret Wenz-Haubfleisch
Description of the individual gravestones
Lageplan von B. Wagner in: Wagner, Barbara u.a.: Die jüdischen Friedhöfe und Familien in Fronhausen, Lohra, Roth, Marburg 2009
The Roth cemetery is located far outside the village on the "Geiersberg" high above the Lahn valley.
How to get to
The Jewish cemetery is located on a hill, the Geiersberg, to the south of Roth. It can be reached via the streets Am Heier or Buchenweg.
History of the Jewish Community in Fronhausen
Historical overview from the 16th to the 20th century
by Annemarie Schlag
The Protectorate of the Landgrave from the 16th to the 18th century
The Hessian landgraves controlled a protectorate including a Jewish community in Fronhausen. In 1574, during the reign of the Landgrave Ludwig IV of Hesse-Marburg, representatives of the Jews living in his lands signed an agreement that was binding for themselves as well as all other Jews in the protectorate. In this document they swore their allegiance to the landgrave, promising to pay 10,000 Gulden (the current, valid government currency) within twenty months. The signatures on the document include that of Susmann of Fronhausen in his own, Hebraic handwriting.
Susmann’s name is also found in the register of residents living in the county of Lohra and Fronhausen contained in the Salbuch from 1592. The register indicates that the tribute in kind – ½ centner (approx. 25 kg) saltpeter – that Susmann had previously been required to pay had been changed to a monetary one. Furthermore Susmann was required to pay taxes levied for military protection against the Turks. In 1599, the landgrave’s exchequer demanded an increase in required protection tributes. Through perseverance and skilled negotiation, Susmann was able to soften these demands.
Jakob and his wife Sprintze, with five daughters and a son named Seligmann, as well as Hirtz and his wife Brunches are recorded by name in the 17th century. A family named Hirtz with seven children is recorded as living in Fronhausen in 1710. An entry from 1737, records the name Hirsch Levi, aged 68. At that time he had apparently had a letter of protection for living in Fronhausen for 43 years. The name “Hirsch” from 1737 could well be referring to the same Hirtz (with wife Brunches) from the 17th century, as well as having been the bearer of the name “Hirtz” for which the family was named in 1710.
The first records of a growing community are found in the 18th century. All of the families still living in Fronhausen in the 20th century had settled in Fronhausen by this time. Only Jacob Levi is mentioned in the 1744 Register of Jews living in Hesse. He and his wife had four daughters and one son. This son seems to have been Meier Levi (Levit Meier.) He later took on the name Löwenstein. The authorities in Fronhausen created an attest for Löwenstein, certifying that he came from a large family and was the epitome of honesty, making it more preferable to do business with him than with any Christian. Meier Levi (Löwenstein) and his wife had four sons: Jacob, Löb, Hirsch, and Anschel. A daughter named Gütchen, who was born in 1768, was probably also one of their children.
These are the forefathers of the extensively branched Löwenstein family in Fronhausen.
Emancipation and Integration in the 19th century
When the Jews were awarded equal standing as citizens during the rule of Napoleon’s brother Jérôme (1807– 1813), they had to take on family names for identification purposes. Until that time they had always used their given names with their father’s name as a surname.
The following families are recorded as living in Fronhausen in 1852:
Lion Seligmann, merchant, 6 children
Simon Löwenstein, horse dealer
Hirsch Löwenstein, butcher, 11 children
Mendel Löwenstein, butcher, 6 children
Samuel Stilling, butcher, 8 children
Forty-six Jews lived in Fronhausen in 1864. There were two merchants, three artisans, and one horse dealer.
The Jewish Community at the end of the 19th century
In the 19th century, the Jews of Roth, Fronhausen, and Lohra formed a single worship community with the synagogue located in Roth. In 1881 the Jews of Fronhausen and Lohra left this community to form their own. The worship services and school lessons were held in private homes until a building for these purposes was bought on the street Marburger Straße in 1886. The school was approved in 1883. There were twelve Jewish schoolchildren from Fronhausen and six from Lohra. The first teacher and cantor was Salomon Andorn from Gemünden. He served in this capacity for ten years until 1893, when Jakob Höxter from Zimmersrode took over. Höxter married Franziska Löwenstein, the daughter of Simon and Ester, in 1899. The school seems to have been in existence until the beginning of 1904.
Four non-Jewish families rented the upper floors of the building above the school and the prayer hall. The Hessian-Nassau district office of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Association of Jews in Germany) took over the building in December 1941.
A Jewish cemetery had existed on the mountain Stollberg in an area known as “Am Kratzeberg” since 1874. The owner of the property, the horse dealer Simon Löwenstein, donated it to the Jewish Community for use as a cemetery in 1873.
The Persecution and Extermination of the Jewish Community by the Nazis (1933-1942)
Jews had been living in Fronhausen for many generations. These Germans of Jewish faith were integrated and involved in their village community. The men of the Jewish community served in the military during the First World War. Friedrich Löwenstein, born in 1888, died in the Battle of Verdun.
After Hitler came to power on January 30th, 1933, the Jewish population began losing more and more of their rights as citizens. A ban prohibited Hermann Löwenstein from butchering his livestock in a kosher manner as of the end of March 1933. Signs reading “Juden sind hier unerwünscht” (in English: Jews are not wanted here) were posted on the roads going out of the village toward Bellnhausen and Niederwalgern. The display windows of Julius Löwenstein’s fabric store and Hermann Löwenstein’s butcher shop were destroyed in June 1935. The windows of Regina Löwenstein, a widow, were broken in October 1935. Trude Meyer, née Löwenstein, survived the Holocaust. She later described this time: “We thought it was just a terrible nightmare. That we would wake-up and everything would be normal again. We had always lived in a peaceful village. Who had ever experienced any hate? Why should we emigrate, we had never done anyone any harm.”
There were five families living in Fronhausen in 1935: Johanna Bachenheimer, born 1895, unmarried, the daughter of David and Bertha, née Schönfeld. Her parents died in 1922 and 1931. She ran a dry goods (“colonial goods”) store in her house on the street Marburger Straße. There is a German custom that within a village, local people and houses have Dorfnamen: “village” or special names known and used only by the local population. Johanna Bachenheimer’s store was called Bachenheimers. (In this case, the reference seems obvious; however, Dorfnamen are not always easy to decipher, as will be seen below. Buildings have the same name for generations even after the original family name has changed. Also, a second store owned by a Bachenheimer would have to have a different name.)
Gottfried and Frieda Goldschmidt, née Löwenstein, with their son Julius and daughter Ilse.
Auguste (Giedel) Löwenstein, born 1868, unmarried, seamstress. She died in 1941. Her place of burial is unknown, she was either buried in the Jewish cemetery in Fronhausen or in the collective graveyard for Jews in Marburg.
Friederike (Rickchen) Löwenstein, born 1872, unmarried, seamstress.
Gottfried Goldschmidt. He was born in Obersemen, and he sold fabrics as a traveling salesman. He lived with his family in the street Gossestraße. The house no longer exists.
Frieda Goldschmidt, born 1894. She was the daughter of Jacob Löwenstein, who lived with his family in Oberwalgern. Auguste (Giedel) and Friederike Löwenstein were Jacob’s sisters. The family’s Dorfname was Isaaks.
Hermann and Johanna Löwenstein, née Katten from Halsdorf, and their four children: Karl, Jenni, Trude, and Friedrich. The family ran a butcher shop in their house on Stollberg. Hermann also traded in livestock and owned farmlands. He died in Frankfurt after undergoing an operation in 1937. His body is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Fronhausen. Three colleagues attended his funeral: Ruth, Pfeffer, and Schlapp from Bellnhausen. They were denounced because of attending the funeral and thrown out of their trade association. Ruth lost the post office that had been on his property.
Hermann’s parents were Moses II and Dina, née Sonn, from Röllshausen.
Dina’s sister, Minnchen Sonn, lived with her sister and brother-in-law. She died in 1938, and she was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Fronhausen. There is no gravestone for her.
Hermann’s sister Johanna (known as Jette) married Meier Katten II. He was the brother of the Johanna known as Sannchen (see below.)
This Löwenstein family had the Dorfname Hirsche.
Regina Löwenstein, née Rosenbaum, with her daughter Irma and son Hermann. They lived in the street Gießener Straße and traded in skins and furs. Regina’s husband Moritz had died in 1927. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Fronhausen. Moritz was the brother of Hermann Löwenstein. Regina was born in Hochelheim in 1878, to parents Heimann and Minna Rosenbaum, née Hess. The family’s Dorfname in Fronhausen was Moritze. Their daughter Irma married Salli Nathan from Lohra in 1938.
Julius Löwenstein, born 1878, businessman and widower, with his son Otto. His wife, Rosa, née Hammerschlag, from Hannoversch-Münden died in 1928, aged 43. She was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Fronhausen.
Julius and Otto owned a large fabric store in the street Gladenbacher Straße that had celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1930. Otto married Elfriede Katz from Inheiden in 1940. He then lived with his parents-in-law in Inheiden.
Julius was the son of Moses Löwenstein I. and Henriette, née Schott, the latter from Bad Soden. This family was known in the village as Mendels.
Minna Krug was Julius Löwenstein’s housekeeper. She moved to Felsberg in early March 1938. Sybilla Neuhaus took over for her on August 15th, 1938. Neuhaus was born in 1898, in Westerburg to parents Louis Neuhaus and Henriette, née Hirsch. Her father was a saddle-maker and upholsterer.
The windows of the homes and stores of these Jewish families were destroyed on the evening of November 9th, 1938, as also occurred elsewhere in Germany. The date of this November pogrom is commonly referred to as Kristallnacht or the “Night of Broken Glass” in English. The prayer hall located on Marburger Straße was also attacked. The contents of the hall were destroyed, and many objects belonging to the Jewish community were thrown out into the street.
Eleven Jewish people from Neustadt were forcibly resettled into the homes of Johanna (Sannchen) Löwenstein and Gottfried Goldschmidt in May 1941. The resettled persons belonged mainly to two families of the name Kanter. Their first names were Hugo, Moritz, Selma, Abraham, Karoline, née Weinberg, and Ludwig; and Walter, Emanuel, Pauline, and Moses. The eleventh person was Rosa Sachs.
The Jewish population of Fronhausen was eliminated as a result of two deportations from the County Marburg: the first to the ghetto in Riga on December 8th, 1941, the second to Lublin/Sobibor on May 31st, 1942.
The sisters Jenni and Trude Löwenstein were the sole survivors of the people mentioned above. They returned to Fronhausen in 1945. In 1946, they emigrated to relatives in San Francisco who had managed to flee from Halsdorf in January 1941.
