Traces of Jewish life in Karlsruhe, Germany

I had a very intensive time in Karlsruhe at the beginning of this year, therefore I hardly was able to go off the beaten path and focus exclusively on the Jewish history of this big industrial city in the Western part of Germany. However, as usual fate was on my side and without too much effort was able to notice some fragments of Jewish history just on my way from a meeting with the local history and culture to another.

For instance, on Karlstraße 11, where nowadays there is a restaurant, it used to be the bank L. Homburger, belonging to one of the oldest families in Karlsruhe. The art nouveau influenced building was planned by the architects Robert Curjel and Karl Moser. After 1938, the bank was liquidated and took away by the state.

Another memorial remembers the synagogue destroyed in 1938, together with many other Jewish institutions. The Jews started to establish in Karlsruhe at the beginning of the 18th century. In 1725, here it was a synagogue, a mikve, a cemetery, and infirmary. After the partial emancipation decrees, here was established in 1809 the seat of the Central Council of Jews in Baden. From 1820s on, Jews were allowed to be work in the field of law and medicine. 

Stolpersteine in the memory of murdered Jews are visible all over the city: on Stephaniestraße, Rheinstraße...In October 22, 1940, 893 Jews were deported to Gurs, France. Others were sent to death between 1942-1945 to Izbica, Auschwitz or Theresienstadt. In 1945, there were 90 Jews left in Karlsruhe. Nowadays, there are less than 1,000 Jews here, served by a Chabad House and a synagogue, mostly originary from the former Soviet Union. 

Traces of Jewish life in Ettlingen, Baden-Würtemberg

Every time I travel somewhere in Germany - and in Europe - I discover traces of Jewish life. In most cases, there are stories about a life that used to be and the past in general. But learning about the past is always a good opportunity to think about the future. 

The last week, I visited the small locality of Ettlingen, situated 5 minutes away by train from Karlsruhe, in the Western part of Germany, close to the border to France.

During WWII, many of the Jews murdered in this part of the country were sent to Gur concentration camp in France. Ettlingen has a relatively small Jewish community, with origins as far as the beginning of the 14th century. The Black Death persecutions and pogroms between 1348-1349 when Jews were accused and killed for an imaginary fault of spreading this epidemics - instead of thinking more logically at the precarious hygienic conditions most part of the population lived in, decimated the community. The Jews returned in Ettlingen in the 17th century, with most of them used to live on Färbergasse - Dyers alley - that was also named Jüdengasse - Jewish alley. With the number increasing, a synagogue was built on Alberstr. in 1849, that was further replaced by a biggest one in Pforzheimstr. According to local statistics, in 1910, there were 75 Jews living in Ettlingen. 

During Kristallnacht, this synagogue was destroyed and the deportation of Jews started. In 1933, there were 48 Jews living here, the number increasing to 79 at the end of the decade. Most of them were sent to death during WWII, Stolpersteine being installed in the recent years to remember the fate of the former Jewish residents. The ones featured in the picture are situated on Rheinstrasse, on the way to the central train station. 

Source of the information: The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life before and after the Holocaust, A-J, ed. by Shmuel Spector, Geoffrey Wigoder