BREISACH

BREISACH (or Alt-Breisach), town on the Rhine, Germany. Jews are first mentioned there in 1301. The community was annihilated during the black death in 1349. Subsequently, Jews again settled in Breisach but were expelled in 1424. The community was reestablished in 1550, and a cemetery opened. In 1750, a Jew owned a textile factory in Breisach employing 330 weavers. The synagogue, built in 1756, was destroyed in November 1938. The Jewish population numbered 438 in 1825 (14% of the total), 564 in 1880 (17%), but only 231 in 1933. On Kristallnacht (Nov. 9–10, 1938), the synagogue was burned down. By 1940, 157 Jews had fled or emigrated, many to nearby France. On Oct. 22, 1940, the last 34 Jews were deported to the gurs concentration camp. In 1967, the sole survivor was a woman who tended the two remaining cemeteries. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Salfeld, Martyrol, 249; Germ Jud, 2 (1968), 124–5; F. Hundsnurscher and G. Taddey, Die juedischen Gemeinden in Baden (1968), index. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Kallfass, Breisach Judengasse (1993); H.D. Blum, Juden in Breisach (1998).