in detail
1516 marks the first known time a Jewish person living in Rexingen is mentioned in a written document. At the time, Rexingen was ruled by the Order of Saint John. Jews were allowed to settle in Rexingen for an annual payment of protection money. In the mid-17th century, after pogroms in Poland and Russa, the Jewish community in Rexingen grew due to the influx of refugees.
In the year 1700, the first synagogue, including a mikvah, was built in what is today Freudenstädter Straße. This building was torn down in 1977. From 1836 to 1837, a second and bigger synagogue—today‘s Former Synagogue—was built just across the street. According to contemporary reports, it was allegedly able to house over 500 persons.
Around 1760, a Jewish cemetery was laid out just outside of Rexingen. Until the last burial in 1962, more than 1,100 graves were dug; today, over 930 gravestones or their remains are still visible. The Rexingen Jewish cemetery is among the largest in Baden-Württemberg.
In the mid-19th century, 427 out of about 1,1000 Rexingers were Jewish; most of them were cattle traders. From 1824 to 1938, Jewish children were taught in the Israelite elementary school.
During the First World War, 105 Jewish men from Rexingen fought as soldiers for Imperial Germany; 15 of them were killed in action or died from wounds. Two memorial plaques for the fallen were dedicated in 1936 and can (again) be seen in the Former Synagogue.
In 1933, 262 Jews lived in Rexingen. During the night of November 9 to 10, 1938, SA stormtroopers and SS men destroyed the synagogue‘s interior; in the aftermath of Crystal Night, many Jewish men were arrested and carried off to Dachau concentration camp.
Already in March 1938, 40 Jewish immigrants from Rexingen had founded the Shavei Zion cooperative settlement in the British mandate of Palestine. This was the only successful Jewish mass immigration of his kind from the German Reich.
The first deportation of Jews from Württember and Hohenzollern took place in late November and early December of 1941. More than 60 Jews were deported from Rexingen to Riga; only 2 survived. In April 1942, 7 Rexingen Jews were deported to Izbica; in August 1942, over 50 Jews were deported from Rexingen to Theresienstadt, of which only 2 survived. Until the end of World War II, about 120 Jews with roots in Rexingen and Horb, respectively, were killed during the Shoah.
In 1939, the municipality of Rexingen bought the synagogue for 7000 Reichsmark. From 1943 on, it rented the building out to the Mauser arms factory from nearby Oberdorf am Neckar. Mauser used the former synagogue as a storage room for rifle stocks.
After World War II, Rexingen received a large number of war refugees from former German territories in the east; many of the new inhabitants in mainly Catholic Rexingen were Protestants. Therefore, the former synagogue was converted into a Protestant church in 1952. In 1972, the building became a protected historical monument.
In 1997, the Träger- und Förderverein Ehemalige Synagoge Rexingen e.V. (Former Rexingen Synagogue Association) was founded. It takes care of the building and holds memorial services as well as cultural and other events there. Many groups, such as schoolchildren, visit the Former Synagogue and the Jewish cemetery annually. There are also close ties to survivors and descendants in the United States and Israel.
