Category: Clergy

As early as 1631, Bredevoort had Jewish residents. At the time, they lived mainly around the Hozenstraat, where they also had their own cemetery, popularly called ‘De Timp’. Around 1700, a Jewish merchant in manufactures set up a house synagogue in Bredevoort. In 1714, this house synagogue moved to a more spacious location, a large stone barn on the Ganzenmarkt between Hozenstraat and Gasthuisstraat. This barn is still there. Jews from Aalten and Lichtenvoorde also visited this synagogue.

Until 1821 the community was still part of Winterswijk, but in 1830 it became an independent municipality. Around 1830, a real synagogue was built on the Vismarkt.

Around 1800, the Jewish community in Bredevoort had almost as many members as the Aalten community, but steadily declined in size in the course of the 19th century. In 1900 there were not enough members to hold regular services and the Bredevoort congregation was merged with that of Aalten.

The building on the Vismarkt served as a synagogue until the beginning of the First World War. Around 1920 the synagogue was converted into a residence. Nowadays the building is a municipal monument.

It was not until 1776 that a ‘Jewish church’ in Aalten was first mentioned. That must also have been a house synagogue. Between 1800 and 1850, the number of Jewish communities in Aalten grew from 39 to 70, mainly due to the expansion of the family in the existing Jewish families: the number of households hardly increased.

In 1857 the synagogue on the Stationsstraat was put into use. The Jewish community acquired ownership of the cemetery on Haartsestraat in 1852, but had already been used there (we do not know for how long) to bury the dead.

In the period 1870-1900, the number of Jewish inhabitants in Aalten decreased from 80 to 50. This must be explained by local circumstances: the number of Jews who had to earn a living with a small business had become too large for the hardly grown population of Aalten (which even decreased slightly due to emigration) due to the strong growth in the preceding years. Some of the Jews from Aalten therefore also moved away, especially to the larger cities in the east of the Netherlands (Arnhem, Zutphen, Deventer).

Only when the total population of Aalten started to increase again, the number of people working in the small trade could also grow again. And that happened, not only because of birth surplus, but for the first time in a long time also because of the settlement of new families.

At the beginning of 1900, the church board had three members. There was a religious school with one teacher and a ritual bath. In addition to a funeral association for men, Aalten had a women’s society that offered help in case of illness and death.

The Jewish community in Aalten was religious, although some may have done a little more about it than others. Social control did play a role in this. However, the Sabbath rules were not always strictly observed for economic reasons.

The Jewish community in Aalten consisted mainly of cattle traders and butchers. The fact that many within the small congregation belonged to the same professional group often led to quarrels, which were often fought out in or near the synagogue. These tensions and quarrels, between ritual butchers who had to determine whether a cow was kosher, and between butchers who wanted to sell, were just as much a part of the Jewish culture in Aalten as the mutual aid in case of illness and poverty.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Jews were still tolerated as foreigners, but in the 19th century a process of integration gradually took place. This led to the fact that the Jews were an accepted minority in the early 20th century. For example, they held board positions in associations such as Aaltens Belang, the Oudheidkamer and the Feestgebouw.

Marcus Gans was co-founder of the Peters en Gans pipe factory on the former Gasthuisstraat. Jewish cattle traders were involved as shareholders in the establishment of the dairy . The public school had Jewish teachers, the Aalten Orchestra Society, the Thalia drama society and Symphonia had Jewish members. Jewish members were part of the Aalten branch of the National Crisis Committee and the volunteer fire brigade.

Most Jewish children also had non-Jewish friends and the older ones were also usually friendly with non-Jews. The municipal council was officially represented at official events in Jewish circles.

In the years after 1933, a stream of refugees started from Germany. After the Reichskristallnacht in 1938, this flow increased sharply. A small part of those who were admitted to the Netherlands were allowed to settle in Aalten. Most were sent to special refugee camps that had been set up in various places in the country.

On 1 January 1942, Aalten had 17 inhabitants with German nationality (which, by the way, they had officially lost on 25 November 1941: the German refugees had effectively become stateless citizens). In the first weeks and months of the German occupation, everything remained quiet in Aalten. Measures taken against the Jews did not directly affect the Jewish community in Aalten in the first year. What would have consequences in the long run was the registration of all Jewish residents in the autumn of 1940. 63 cards were sent to Arnhem.

In 1941, the expulsion of Jews from public life began. First there were fewer and fewer advertisements from Jewish shopkeepers in the newspapers, then came the regulations that forbade them to participate in public meetings and access to public spaces. Jewish pupils were banned from education. In the same year 1941, the first Jewish victim fell from the Jewish community in Aalten as a result of a raid.

The list of prohibitions and obligations that applied specifically to Jews continued to grow and in the summer of 1942 the deportations began. They had to decide whether or not to go into hiding. Those who did not opt for the latter were deployed for what was called ‘the expansion of work in the east’ and – as we know afterwards – murdered in the gas chambers.

On 13 July 1942, the overview of the Jews in Aalten was sent in five copies to the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung in Amsterdam. That was the beginning of the end.

With the exception of the NSB members, the non-Jewish population of Aalten generally behaved helpfully. In retrospect, however, one can say that both Jews and non-Jews underestimated the danger and did not see the severity of the measures.

On 4 October 1942, 10 Jews from Aalten, family members of Jews who had been transferred to Westerbork from a number of closed labour camps, were put on a transport to the transit camp and from there to Poland. Shortly afterwards they were removed from the population register ‘because they left for abroad’.

Within a month of that, 37 Jews from Aalten were in hiding. They were also removed from the population register with the addition v.o.w. (left, unknown whereto). At the beginning of 1943, another 15 Jews from Aalten went into hiding. The other 25 were deported via Vught or Westerbork. This made Aalten officially Judenrein on 10 April 1943.

The houses of the deported families were emptied (for the benefit of German Bombengeschädigte) and rented out again. Outstanding bills and transport costs were paid by Lippmann and Rosenthal, the bank in Amsterdam where all Jewish assets were housed.

In 1941 people went into hiding temporarily, but from October 1942 the hiding took on a permanent character. Not everyone returned from hiding.

Of the 52 Jews in hiding, three eventually died during their hiding period and six were arrested, deported and murdered after being betrayed. There have also been Jews who were born in Aalten, who may or may not have spent a large part of their lives there, but who lived elsewhere in the Netherlands during the occupation due to relocation. The information about their fate is not complete. If we count them, the number of victims from Aalten is much larger than the 34 of whom we know for sure.