История Ootmarsum Synagogue
Ootmarsum is a small hill town in Twente, in the east of the province of Overijssel, close to the German border. Jews lived there from about 1700, and in 1821 Ootmarsum, together with the neighbouring municipality of Denekamp, became an independent congregation (bijkerk) with a board of three. The official synagogue of the joint community stood in Ootmarsum, while the Jews of Denekamp held services in a private house.
The community built its first synagogue and a school in 1843. Both buildings were destroyed by fire in 1859, and a new synagogue on the Kloosterstraat was consecrated a year later, around 1860. This is the building described here. It was restored in 1904, when the local Jewish women's society supplied new textile furnishings and ritual objects.
The congregation was then already shrinking. Regular Jewish education had ended in the late nineteenth century, and by 1930 only six Jews remained in Ootmarsum and its surroundings. In 1924 the community was dissolved and merged into that of Oldenzaal. The synagogue was sold and demolished in 1936, years before the German invasion. Its façade stone survived and was built into the monument that now stands on the site.
Where it stood for nearly 80 years
Historic: Kloosterstraat, Ootmarsum (house number unknown). Today: site of the Jewish monument on the Kloosterstraat against the monastery wall, 7631 EJ Ootmarsum, Dinkelland, Overijssel (approximate).
Открыть большую карту →Еврейская община
According to the Jewish Historical Museum's community encyclopedia, Jewish settlement in Ootmarsum began around 1700 with a butcher, who was admitted on condition that his trade did not harm the members of the local guilds. The Jewish population grew steadily through the eighteenth century, and around 1786 the community opened a cemetery on the Kuiperberg, on the Almelose Straatweg, which was also used by the Jews of Denekamp. In 1821 Ootmarsum and Denekamp together became an independent congregation with a board of three. The community counted 87 people in 1809, 100 in 1840, 128 in 1869 and 101 in 1899. Its best-known family were the Bendiens, whose cloth and damask factory, founded in 1813, played a major role in the town's economy; Alfred Bendien, its director in the early twentieth century, sat on the town council. Numbers fell sharply after 1900, and in 1930 only six Jews were counted. In 1924 the congregation ceased to exist and was merged into the community of Oldenzaal.
Архитектура и дизайн
No photograph, drawing or plan of the Kloosterstraat synagogue was found in the sources consulted, so its appearance is unknown. The encyclopedia entry records only that it was built on the Kloosterstraat to replace the synagogue and school of 1843, which had burned down in 1859, and that it was consecrated about a year after the fire. It does not say whether the new building reused the old site, whether a school was rebuilt with it, or how many seats it had. The architect, builder, materials and style are unknown. The only surviving fragment known is the façade stone, which was kept when the building was demolished and was later set into the monument on the Kloosterstraat; its inscription and date were not recorded in the sources read. Given the size of the congregation, which never exceeded about 130 people, it was presumably a modest building, but that is an inference rather than a documented fact.
Жизнь в синагоге
The Kloosterstraat synagogue was the official house of prayer for the combined congregation of Ootmarsum and Denekamp, while Denekamp's Jews also met for services in a private house. Little is recorded about religious life inside it. No rabbi, cantor or lay leader is named in the sources consulted. The congregation had its own school in 1843, and regular Jewish education continued until the end of the nineteenth century; a teacher who came from Hardenberg in 1914 briefly revived religious instruction, but this did not last. The building was restored in 1904, and on that occasion the local Jewish women's society provided textile furnishings and ritual objects, which the source does not list individually. With the community's numbers falling, services probably became irregular in the early twentieth century, and after the merger with Oldenzaal in 1924 the synagogue had no congregation of its own.
Разрушение
The synagogue was not destroyed in the Second World War. After the Ootmarsum congregation was dissolved and merged into that of Oldenzaal in 1924, the building no longer had a community to use or maintain it. According to the Jewish Historical Museum's community encyclopedia it was first sold and then demolished in 1936. The Ootmarsum local history society's yearbook for 2023 confirms that the synagogue stood on the Kloosterstraat until 1936. Neither source names the buyer, the price, the purpose of the sale or who carried out the demolition, and who demolished the building is not recorded. It is also unknown what was built on the plot afterwards. The façade stone was saved, either at the time of the demolition or later, and it was eventually incorporated into the memorial erected on the site in 2001.
Судьба общины
By the time of the German invasion in May 1940 only a handful of Jews still lived in Ootmarsum. Under the Nazi German occupation they were subjected to the same registration, exclusion and deportation measures as Jews across the Netherlands. In August 1942 Mauritz ten Brink was summoned to a medical examination in Oldenzaal before dispatch to the labour camp at Ruurlo; the mayor reported that he was too ill to attend and he received a stay. The reprieve was temporary. The memorial on the Kloosterstraat names nine Jewish residents of Ootmarsum who were deported on 30 March 1943 through the Westerbork transit camp to Auschwitz and murdered there: Frederike ten Brink, Maurits ten Brink, Abraham Dusseldorp, John Dusseldorp, Nathan Dusseldorp, Bertha Echenwald, Beatrice de Jong, Jenny Roozendaal and Jeannette Sanders. No Jewish community was re-established in Ootmarsum after the war, and the cemetery on the Kuiperberg is maintained by the municipality.
Место сегодня
The synagogue stood on the Kloosterstraat in the old centre of Ootmarsum, a short street beside the former monastery. Its exact house number was not found. Since December 2001 the site has been marked by a monument, set against the monastery wall, which was erected by the Ben Morshuis Foundation and which the 2023 yearbook of the local history society says stands on the spot where the synagogue stood until 1936. It carries a plaque with the names of the Jewish residents murdered in the war and the surviving façade stone of the synagogue. What else now occupies the former plot is not described in the sources read.
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