Judisches Gemeindeblatt fur die israelitischen Gemeinden in Mannheim, Heidelberg und Ludwigshafen a. Rh.
(Trans. Jewish community paper for the Jewish communities in Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen a Rh)
1936
Mainz
From the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica

This special edition of the Gemeindeblatt for the Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen communities, held only at the Price Library of Judaica and four European institutions, is dedicated to the Jewish community of Mannheim. The Price Library copy contains an illegible signature on the first page, and a stamp of the Bibliothek Judischen Religionsverbande Hamburg (the Library of the Jewish Religious Federation of Hamburg) on the title page. This federation was set-up in Hamburg in 1938 as a result of a Nazi ban on the description of the Jewish community as “German” or “Israelite.” It is probable that this commemorative issue of Mannheim Jewry was taken to Hamburg by a member of the community trying to escape the city or indeed Germany via the Hamburg port. This special issue contains an account of the community as well as statistical charts (the most arresting of these is the graph of births and deaths), and photographs and descriptions of prominent community members, community buildings and the Jewish cemeteries, descriptions and statistics pertaining to community working and financial life, and lengthy descriptions of the organizations within the Jewish community. The Jewish community of Mannheim, numbering over 6,000 in the early part of the 20th century, had played an active role in the social, cultural and political life of the city. These numbers declined significantly after 1933. In November 1938, the Nazi’s burnt down the main synagogue and forced the members of the community to disinter the remains of 3,586 bodies buried in the old cemetery. Two thousand members of the community were deported to the concentration camp of Gurs in October 1940. A year later, the remaining members were sent to Auschwitz.