Zwickau
ZWICKAU
ZWICKAU , city in *Saxony, Germany. Documentary evidence points to the presence of Jews in the first half of the 14th century. In 1308 Margrave Frederick promised to maintain the privileges of both burghers and Jews. Documents dating from 1330 mention a Jewish street and synagogue. The Jews were expelled from the city in 1430 during the *Hussite wars, although some returned soon after. In 1444 the mint, operated by Jews, was attacked by the burghers, and in 1458 the Jewish quarter was burned down. Jewish settlement dwindled and then disappeared. The modern Jewish community in Zwickau grew from 59 persons in 1875 (only 9 in 1834) to 159 in 1910; 362 in 1925; and 473 in 1932, when 12 charitable and social organizations were functioning. By 1939 only 64 Jews remained in the city; none lived there in 1971. The publisher Salman *Schocken grew up in Zwickau.
There are several memorials dedicated to the destroyed synagogue, the deportations, and the Zwickau Jews who perished during the Nazi era.
bibliography:
fjw, 329–30; Germania Judaica, 2 (1968), 950–1; 3 (1987), 1749–51; pk Germanyah. add. bibliography: A. Diamant, Zur Chronik der Juden in Zwickau. Dem Gedenken einer kleinen judischen Gemeinde in Sachsen (1971); K. Fuchs, Ein Konzern aus Sachsen. Das Kaufhaus Schocken als Spiegelbild deutscher Wirtschaft und Politik 1901 bis 1953 (1990).