The Jewish community of Dresden

The oldest signs of Jewish life in Dresden go back to as early as the 13^th century. In 1265 Jewish communities in Saxony and Thuringia are mentioned for the first time in documents. The Jew Decree of the Margrave of Meissen, Heinrich des Erleuchten (the illustrious), served as a legal mandate. As early as 1349, during the course of the devastating pest epidemic, the first persecutions against Jews began and Jews were held responsible the pest. Following the persecutions, Jews were deprived of all property and in 1430 the electoral prince Friedrich der Sanftmütige (the gentle) had them expelled from Dresden. Not until 1700, two hundred years later, were the Jews permitted by August den Starken (the strong) to return and settle again in Dresden and Leipzig. The Jewish community today can be traced back to Berend Lehmann, who moved to Dresden at that time. Fifty-one years later the Israelite Religious Community received its first cemetery of the modern era in Dresden. Until 1933 Jewish life developed in Dresden into a veritable advanced civilization. The inauguration of the Semper Synagogue in 1840 was an expression of the legal equality of the Jews and the existence of Jewish life in Dresden. Because the cemetery was located relatively far from the synagogue, the Israelite Religious Community established a new cemetery in 1867 on today’s Fiedlerstrasse.

                                                                               Cemetery Fiedlerstrasse

As was the case within all the territory under National Socialist rule, Jewish life in Dresden was extinguished during National Socialism. The synagogue was destroyed during the November Pogrom of 1938. Deportations begin in 1942. The fate of the Jews who remained behind has been documented in contemporary sources such as the diaries of Viktor Klemperer. No more than approximately one hundred Jews from Dresden survived the Second World War. In the postwar years, the Jewish community consolidated itself from the few remaining Jews and began to grow slowly. Jewish community life gradually established itself. With the establishment of a new synagogue, completed in 2000 and 2001, the past was held accountable. After more than sixty years, the Jewish community of Dresden has once again a synagogue, one whose form and content do not recall the past structure in the least, but which serves as an admonishment to not overlook the events that divide us from the past.

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