The synagogue 1927

My name is Hans David Blum. I grew up near the synagogue, here in the Judengasse. This photo shows our house of worship in 1927. I was just 8 years old then. My friend Walter is standing in front of the synagogue with his grandfather Leopold Breisacher. That was a long time ago.

When I visit Breisach today and stand on the square in front of the synagogue, it brings both bitter and good memories. Bitter because our place of worship – like almost every synagogue in Germany and Austria – was burned down on the 10th of November 1938 by SA and SS men. – Good memories because the city has preserved this empty square as a memorial. 

In our neighbourhood, innocent people were beaten, shops were looted and the men were arrested and deported to the Dachau concentration camp. Most of them came back a few weeks later, haggard and with their heads shaved. They couldn't talk about what they had experienced and seen. Butcher Bernheim and Emil Grumbach were beaten to death in Dachau. And cantor Michael Eisemann took his own life after he was released from the concentration camp. Some say that was the day the Holocaust began. 

The synagogue was the centre of our religious life! When it was destroyed, we all were devastated. 

How did the community cope? My parents immediately made their living room available for services, until the community leaders Hermann Bähr and Julius Rosenberg secretly set up a prayer room in the community center – you can see it from here. 

There's still so much to tell about the synagogue and the history of our community! Built in 1710, the original synagogue, the first on the Upper Rhine, was destroyed by the French in the great fire of 1793. The growing community needed a new synagogue, and next to it they built the mikvah, the women's bath. The community flourished – in 1850 almost every fifth resident of Breisach was Jewish! In 1862, Jews in Baden were finally granted equal rights. They were overjoyed! 

However, the result was that the community shrank – those who could, went to the city where there was more work. The era of Breisach being an important district rabbinate came to an end. The office was established in Freiburg soon afterwards.