Marktbreit Holocaust Memorial

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Photographed By Andrew Ruppenstein, August 25, 2023

2. Marktbreit Holocaust Memorial - wide view

The memorial is visible on the right, next to the door, beyond the locked gate. It’s at the end of a short narrow passage between buildings off of Schustergasse. There is a small sign on the street pointing to the former synagogue.

On the destruction of the Jewish Community in Marktbreit (in translation): In 1933, 127 Jewish people lived in the city. In the years that followed, Jewish cultural life continued to be lively in the city. Nevertheless, as everywhere in Germany, the National Socialist boycott, increasing reprisals and increasing disenfranchisement also had an impact in Marktbreit. Max Weinberg was appointed as the last Jewish community leader in February 1936. In the school year 1937/38, 15 children attended the Jewish elementary school. During the November pogrom of 1938, the synagogue was desecrated and the interior destroyed... In addition, eleven Jewish apartments were completely devastated by the residents of Marktbreit: windows and furniture were smashed, clothes torn, food supplies destroyed. Six men were deported to Dachau or Buchenwald. A little later, the Jews still living here had to leave their homes and move in together in the Jewish community center. A total of 54 Jews had moved to Marktbreit from surrounding towns since 1933. By the time the deportations began, a total of 146 Jews had left the city, 86 of whom were able to emigrate. In 1942, the remaining Jews were deported, 23 via Würzburg to the Izbica extermination camp (near Lublin, Poland) on March 24, 1942 and nine to the Theresienstadt ghetto in September 1942.