“Höringhausen”
Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities:
Germany volume 3
(Germany)

51°16' / 08°59'

Translation from Pinkas ha-kehilot Germanyah

Published by Yad Vashem

Published in Jerusalem, 1992

 

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator and Translator

 

Our sincere appreciation to Yad Vashem for permission
to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot: Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities, Germany
Volume 3, page 454, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 1992

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied, sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be reserved by the copyright holder.

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.

[Page 454]

Höringhausen, Germany
(Höringhausen, village, today part of the city Waldeck,
in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district)

YearNumber of
Residents		Number
of Jews		Percent
Jewish
1830 85 
187177211014.2
18807578110.7
1895752668.7
1905756597.8
1925832283.4
1933893222.5
193984640.5

Religious Affiliation by Percentage in 1925

JewsCatholicsProtestantsOthers
3.40.494.31.9

From the History of the Community

Höringhausen, which was in the principality (later the state) of Waldeck, in 1929 became part of Hesse-Nassau. In 1730 three Jewish heads of families received letters of protection, and in 1779 there already were 17 Jewish families living in Höringhausen, among them the father of the Loewenstern family, the oldest in Höringhausen (who, until 1750 was named Baer).

In 1840 there was a Jewish shoemaker, and in the middle of the 19th century, some of the Jews of Höringhausen received permission to engage in petty trade, livestock selling, kosher slaughtering and serving as deputies/proxies. During the last half of the 19th century the general situation of the Jews improved.

In 1792, the kehilla of Höringhausen built a synagogue, and in the years 1823 and 1843, they published the bylaws of the synagogue. In 1839 the cantor complained about a Jew who used to interrupt him in prayer, and in 1841 two worshippers received warnings not to correct the cantor in his prayers. In 1847, the synagogue was already very unstable, and in 1851 it was declared a hazardous building and was destroyed. In 1848 the Jews of Höringhausen achieved permission to build a new synagogue and they opened a fundraising appeal (among themselves and among the Jews of the area). In 1844 they had sufficient means to possess the plot of the old synagogue and build a new synagogue there, which housed both a classroom and an apartment for the teacher and the cantor. Until the completion of the building, prayer took place in the community in a private home. From the 80's onward, the Jews of Höringhausen had a cemetery as well.

In 1835 a teacher of religion and a cantor were mentioned. In 1868, the Jewish teacher Haas for a time served as the Christian teacher in Höringhausen, and in 1869 the community opened an elementary school. In the years 1871-1873, 23 to 26 children learned in it, and in 1886 it became a public school, but at that time only 16 students remaianed, and their number was decreasing. After the First World War, the school was closed due to a paucity of students.

In 1870, Marcus Lazarus, apparently the rich man of the community, donated a new ritual bath and founded a charitable fund. In 1874 contributions were collected for the widow and five children of the teacher, Jaffe, and in 1882 a council to aid the Jews of Russia arose – an exceptional enterprise in a community so small.

In 1932 five Jewish families remained in Höringhausen. The community had a synagogue, ritual bath and cemetery, and kosher slaughter was available. One child studied with the religious teacher in Korbach (see entry). The head of the kehillah, Herman Katzenstein, served also as chairman of the charitable fund named for Marcus Lazarus. The community belonged to the rabbinical area of Marburg.

Under Nazi Rule

In the years 1933-1939, most of the Jews left Höringhausen. By 1937 there were no communal prayers. The synagogue was sold to a bank in exchange for 6,000 marks (and was used as a warehouse) and the "Land Representatives" took the ritual objects to Kassel. In 1939 the cemetery (or part of it) was also sold. The sellers stipulated if the "Land Representatives" agreed to the deal, that in the future Jews would be buried there in their time of need and that the buyer would take care of the headstones for at least 30 years.

In 1939, four elderly Jews remained in Höringhausen and they were deported in 1942 to camps in the east.

In Sachsenhausen nearby, 27 Jews (nine families) lived in 1933, and they had a cemetery and a prayer hall (which was sold in 1938).

At the end of the war, the synagogue in Höringhausen was used for housing of German refugees. In the '50s it was rebuilt from the foundations and today a bank is situated there. The Jewish cemeteries in Höringhausen (2,740 square meters) and in Sachsenhausen (1,985 sq. meters) today belong to the municipality of Waldeck.

 Yizkor Book Project    JewishGen Home Page  

Yizkor Book Director, Lance Ackerfeld
Emerita Yizkor Book Project Manager, Joyce Field z”l
Contact person for this translation
This web page created by Max Heffler

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 25 Jan 2007 by MGH