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

49°58' / 08°16'

Translation from Pinkas ha-kehilot Germanyah

Published by Yad Vashem

Published in Jerusalem, 1992


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 178, 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 178]

Hechtsheim, Germany

A village in the Mainz-Binger region, today a part of the city of Mainz in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz.

Donated by David Zinner
Translated by Jerrold Landau

 

Population

YearPopulationJews%
1828 28 
18612,051743.6
188032,558863.4
1900 97 
19103,344742.2
19253,603541.5
19333,670300.8
19393,8891 
Dec 31, 1940 1 
October 1, 1942 0 

Religious affiliation by percentage in 1933

JewsCatholicsProtestantsOthers
0.883.97.22.1

A synagogue was built and the community was established in Hechtsheim in 1841. The pinnacle of its Jewish population was reached in 1900, with 97 souls. In later years, the community began to decline progressively. When the Nazis took over the government, less than one-third of the Jewish population remained. There was a Jewish cemetery. At the end of the 19th century D. Mohr served as the religion teacher, cantor, and shochet. In 1911, M. Kahn, a graduate of the teacher's seminary in Wurzburg, replaced him. He remained in his post until the beginning of the 1930s. The community belonged to the rabbinate of Mainz (see entry).

In 1881, anti-Semitic incitement took place in Hechtsheim, and street violence broke out.

Three members of the community were killed during the First World War. Two of them were from one family.

In the Reichstag elections of September 14, 1930, only 6% of the residents of Hechtsheim voted for the Nazi party (in contrast to the 18.5% throughout Hessen). The Nazis attained their pinnacle of support in Hechtsheim in the summer of 1932, with 30% of the votes to the Reichstag and the Landtag (in contrast to the 43%-44% throughout Hessen) – as an achievement of the Catholic Centrum Party[1]. During that period, the Social Democrats declined from 37% to 32%.

Fifteen Jews left the area between 1933-1938. One immigrated to South Africa, and the rest moved to other places in Germany. Some of those emigrated later. One Jew died in 1935. In 1936, a cantor from Mainz was brought in to conduct the services.

Heavy damage was caused to the homes and property of the five remaining Jewish families on Kristallnacht. At least one Jew was sent to Buchenwald. We do not know what happened to the synagogue. The last head of the community, Julius Weiss, left Hechtsheim with his family in the week following Kristallnacht, and the rest of the Jews, except for one, left by January, 1939. Several members of the community immigrated to the United States. After the war, one Jew from Hechtsheim lived in Germany and another in France. The last Jew of Hechtsheim, David Kop, was deported to an extermination camp in Poland in 1942, where he perished.

After the war, the local authorities and the Jewish community of Mainz accepted responsibility for the care of the Jewish cemetery (738 square meters).

Translator's Footnotes

  1. I am not sure of the relationship of this clause to the rest of the paragraph. It seems to imply that the remainder (subtracting the Social Democrats and the Nazi Party) was for the Centrum Party. Indeed, the remainder would be 38%, which would make the Centrum the largest party (assuming only three parties). Return

 Yizkor Book Project    JewishGen Home Page  


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

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 3 Jan 2007 by MGH