Historia Druten Synagogue
Druten lies on the south bank of the Waal in Gelderland, in the river district known as the Land van Maas en Waal, west of Nijmegen. According to the Jewish Cultural Quarter's community encyclopaedia, which draws on the Joods Historisch Museum's research and the Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities: Holland, a few Jewish families lived in Druten in the first half of the nineteenth century. There were four Jews in 1809 and fifteen in 1840. In 1859 the families organised themselves as an independent Jewish community, and in 1860 they dedicated a synagogue on the Nieuwstraat a street that today runs north to the Waal dike.
The congregation reached its peak soon afterwards: 57 Jews were counted in Druten and the surrounding villages in 1869. In 1885 the community celebrated the synagogue's 25th anniversary, but from then on it declined. In 1900 it was merged into the Jewish community of Nijmegen, and services in the Nieuwstraat building continued only until 1906. The building was then given another use, which the sources consulted do not specify, and it survived as a non-religious building for about seventy years until it was demolished in 1977. No photograph or drawing of it was found in this research, and its architect, size and appearance are unknown.
Where it stood for 117 years
Historic: Nieuwstraat, Druten, Gelderland; house number unknown. Today: Nieuwstraat, 6651 Druten; pin at the 2001 memorial 'Herinnering aan de Synagoge' on the Waalbandijk near the north end of the Nieuwstraat (approximate).
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The Jewish presence in Druten was small and fairly late. The JCK encyclopaedia records four Jews in 1809 and fifteen in 1840, living in Druten and the surrounding area. The dead were buried on the Gelenberg at Afferden, a village a few kilometres east along the Waal, where a Jewish cemetery was in use from 1836, more than twenty years before the community was formally founded. In 1859 the families constituted themselves as an independent Jewish community (joodse gemeente) within the Dutch Israelite religious organisation, and a year later they had their own synagogue. By 1869 the community numbered 57 people, its highest recorded figure. Numbers then fell, to 43 in 1899, as families moved away; the sources do not say where they went. In 1900 the Druten community lost its independence and was merged into the Jewish community of Nijmegen. No figure is given for 1930. The names of the founding families, the community's leaders and its religious officials are unknown from the sources consulted.
Architektura i projekt
Almost nothing is recorded about the building itself. The JCK encyclopaedia gives only its location on the Nieuwstraat and the date of its dedication, 1860. No photograph, postcard, plan or description of the synagogue was found in this research, so its size, materials, style and seating capacity are unknown, as is the name of its architect or builder. It served a community that never exceeded 57 people, but no source gives its dimensions. The house number is also unknown. Because the building stood until 1977 and served another purpose for its last seventy years, photographs of it may survive in the collections of the municipality of Druten, the Gelders Archief or local history societies in the Land van Maas en Waal, none of which could be searched in this run.
Życie w synagodze
Few details of religious life in the Druten synagogue survive in the sources consulted. The building was dedicated in 1860, the year after the community was founded, and served a congregation that at its largest, in 1869, numbered 57 people from Druten and the nearby villages. The community marked the synagogue's 25th anniversary with a celebration in 1885, the one event in the building's life that the JCK encyclopaedia records. Whether the congregation ever employed a teacher, cantor or ritual slaughterer, as many small Dutch communities did, is unknown, and no rabbi is recorded. The community buried its dead at Afferden. After the merger with Nijmegen in 1900 the remaining members kept the synagogue in use for six more years; services ended in 1906, and the sources do not give the reason.
Zniszczenie
The Druten synagogue was not destroyed in the Second World War. It ceased to be a place of worship in 1906, six years after the community had been absorbed into that of Nijmegen, and the JCK encyclopaedia says the building was then given another purpose. Whether it was sold by the Nijmegen community, and to whom, is not recorded in the sources consulted, nor is its use between 1906 and 1977. No source found describes what happened to the building during the Nazi German occupation or the fighting of 1944 and 1945, when the Land van Maas en Waal lay close to the front line around Nijmegen. According to the JCK encyclopaedia the building was demolished in 1977. Who ordered or carried out the demolition, and why, is not recorded in any source read for this entry.
Los społeczności
The Druten congregation came to an end long before the Second World War. Its membership fell after 1885, it was merged into the Jewish community of Nijmegen in 1900, and services in its synagogue ended in 1906. The JCK encyclopaedia gives no Jewish population figure for Druten in 1930, which suggests that few or no Jews were then living in the town. The fate of individual Jews from Druten during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands has not been researched for this entry; descendants of Druten families who had moved to Nijmegen or elsewhere may have been among the Dutch Jews deported and murdered by the Nazis, but no source consulted names any. The Jewish cemetery on the Gelenberg at Afferden, used since 1836, was cleared in 1961 and the remains were reburied in the Jewish cemetery on the Kwakkenbergweg at Groesbeek. No organised Jewish community existed in Druten after the war.
Miejsce dzisiaj
The synagogue stood on the Nieuwstraat in the centre of Druten, but the exact plot has not been identified in the sources consulted, so it is not possible to say what occupies it now. The Nieuwstraat still exists and runs north to the Waalbandijk, the river dike. In August 2001 a memorial to the synagogue was unveiled on the Waalbandijk; OpenStreetMap places this sculpture, titled 'Herinnering aan de Synagoge', at the dike close to the northern end of the Nieuwstraat. The map pin for this entry marks that memorial, not a documented footprint of the building, and should be read as approximate. Fixing the exact site will need the cadastral records or the local history collections of the Land van Maas en Waal.
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