An award-winning citizens’ association hopes to purchase the decaying, half-timbered former synagogue and adjacent mikvah building in the village of Harmuthsachsen, in north central Germany, and make them accessible to the public for commemoration, educational work and guided tours.
“There is a realistic possibility of preserving [the] former village synagogue in Harmuthsachsen and developing it further into a memorial and meeting place for Jewish life,” Dr. Martin Arnold, Chairman of the Association of Friends of Jewish Life in the Werra-Meißner District, told JHE. “However, the prerequisite is that we acquire the synagogue.”
The synagogue was converted from a barn and inaugurated in 1833. It is listed as a protected monument, and it underwent restoration in the 1990s, even winning the Hesse region preservation prize in 2004. The private owner, however, carried out no maintenance and kept the buildings closed to the public. After protracted negotiations over a sale price, the Association is currently seeking funding to complete the purchase, and then would use grants for restoration.
“The private owner is willing to sell the two buildings and the land for €30,000 to the Friends Association,” Arnold said. “The State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments would support the Association with generous grants for the restoration of the buildings. The town of Waldkappel has agreed to help the Association with ‘minor building maintenance’ and to waive levies.”
The synagogue is one of the few surviving synagogue buildings in the Werra-Meißner region, where there were once 14 Jewish communities. Most of the synagogues were either destroyed by the Nazis or converted out of recognition for other use.
The Harmuthsachsen synagogue survived as it had been sold to a private owner before World War II, after most Jews had left the village. It was used as a barn and warehouse.
Earlier this year, in September, the Friends Association and the Aufwind Mental Health Association were co-recipients of a Hesse Preservation Prize for their joint work in restoring the 19th century former synagogue in the town of Abterode and transforming it into a place of education, commemoration, and social action. The ground floor of the former synagogue houses a shop that provides jobs for mentally disabled people, and the upper floor is a learning and memorial center focusing on local Jewish history.
“Through their efforts, both associations have jointly secured and preserved the wall and ceiling paintings in the former synagogue, which are significant in terms of building culture, with great voluntary commitment,” the award announcement said. “They have also brought the building, which is relevant to cultural history, back into the public eye, with a shop that creates jobs for people with severe disabilities and ensures local supplies, as well as a place of learning and remembrance for the Jewish past that extends far beyond the district, providing new meaning and anchoring social engagement in historical walls.”
Read a history and see photos of the Harmuthsachsen synagogue on Alemannia Judaica