הסיפור של Zuidbroek Synagogue
Zuidbroek and its neighbour Noordbroek are villages in the province of Groningen, today part of the municipality of Midden-Groningen. For most of the nineteenth century the few Jewish families living there belonged to the Jewish community of Hoogezand and went there for services. The Jewish population grew from 13 in 1809 to 39 in 1840, 48 in 1869 and 75 in 1899. In 1883, near the peak of that growth, the Jews of the two villages built their own synagogue in Uiterburen, a hamlet on the north side of Zuidbroek, and a year later the congregation of Noord- en Zuidbroek was recognised as an independent community. In 1886 it laid out its own cemetery on the Botjesweg at the corner of 't Veen.
Independence lasted less than forty years. In the first two decades of the twentieth century the number of Jews fell so far that the community lost its independent status, and in 1922 it was placed under Hoogezand-Sappemeer again. In 1930 only 39 Jews lived in the two villages. The synagogue, no longer needed, was pulled down in 1934. No photograph, drawing or description of the building was found, and its exact site in Uiterburen is not recorded in the sources consulted. The cemetery survives.
Where it stood for 51 years
Historic: Uiterburen, Zuidbroek (Noord- en Zuidbroek), province of Groningen; house number unknown. Today: Uiterburen, 9636 Zuidbroek, Midden-Groningen (approximate).
פתיחת מפה גדולה ←הקהילה היהודית
Jews are recorded in Noord- and Zuidbroek from at least the early nineteenth century: the Joods Cultureel Kwartier's community encyclopedia, based on the Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in the Netherlands, counts 13 in 1809. Through most of the century they formed part of the Jewish community of Hoogezand, the larger neighbouring centre. Numbers rose steadily, to 39 in 1840, 48 in 1869 and 75 in 1899. The building of a synagogue in 1883 was followed in 1884 by recognition as an independent congregation, and in 1886 by the opening of a cemetery on the Botjesweg near 't Veen. Like many small Jewish communities in the Groningen countryside, Noord- en Zuidbroek lost members to the towns in the early twentieth century. By about 1920 it could no longer sustain itself, and from 1922 it belonged once more to the community of Hoogezand-Sappemeer. In 1930, 39 Jews were counted. The names of the community's teachers, readers and board members were not found in the sources consulted.
אדריכלות ועיצוב
No photograph, drawing, plan or written description of the Zuidbroek synagogue was found. The only facts recorded are that it was built in 1883 and that it stood in Uiterburen, a small hamlet and street on the northern edge of Zuidbroek. Its size, materials, style, seating and the name of its architect or builder are unknown. The sources consulted do not say whether the building had a women's gallery, a vestibule or a separate room for teaching, nor what happened to its furnishings and Torah scrolls when the congregation merged with Hoogezand-Sappemeer in 1922. No inventory of its ritual objects is known. Whether it was purpose-built or an adapted house is also not stated, although the sources speak of a synagogue being built in 1883.
החיים בבית הכנסת
Nothing specific is recorded about services in the Zuidbroek synagogue. The congregation was small: at its largest, in 1899, the two villages counted 75 Jews, and no rabbi of its own is recorded. As an independent community from 1884 it had its own board and, from 1886, its own burial ground, which suggests that the synagogue was the centre of a complete if modest religious life, with burials no longer needing to go to Hoogezand. Whether the congregation employed a teacher or reader, and who led its services, is unknown. After 1922, when the community came under Hoogezand-Sappemeer again, it is not known whether services continued in Uiterburen or whether the remaining Jews went to the synagogue in Hoogezand until the building was demolished in 1934.
הרס
The Zuidbroek synagogue was not destroyed in the Second World War. The Joods Cultureel Kwartier's community encyclopedia states simply that it was demolished in 1934, twelve years after the congregation had lost its independence and been merged back into the Jewish community of Hoogezand-Sappemeer. By then fewer than forty Jews were left in the two villages. Who decided on the demolition is not recorded in the sources consulted: it is not known whether the Hoogezand-Sappemeer community or the Groningen chief rabbinate sold the building or the plot, whether a private buyer pulled it down, or whether its materials were reused. No newspaper report of the sale or demolition was found.
גורל הקהילה
When Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, the Jews of Noord- and Zuidbroek belonged to the community of Hoogezand-Sappemeer, and their synagogue had already been gone for six years. The occupiers registered, isolated and finally deported them along with the rest of Dutch Jewry. The Joods Monument lists, among the Jewish residents of Zuidbroek in April 1942, the family of Freerk Wolf (1894-1942) and Johanna Sophia Wolf-Colthof (1897-1943), with their sons Jozef Benjamin Wolf, born in Zuidbroek in 1920, and Benjamin Wolf (1923-1942). Jozef Benjamin was murdered in Auschwitz on 17 April 1944; a family caption says he was with his father when he was killed. The Joods Monument also lists victims at Nieuwe Stationsweg 32-a and Torenstraat 1 in Zuidbroek. The total number of Jews deported from the two villages, and how many survived, was not established. A memorial at Zuidbroek railway station recalls the deportation trains from Westerbork that passed through the village.
האתר כיום
The exact plot of the synagogue in Uiterburen has not been identified in any source consulted, and nothing of the building is known to survive. Uiterburen today is a small hamlet and street on the northern edge of Zuidbroek, in the municipality of Midden-Groningen, with houses and farmland; the map pin marks the hamlet as mapped by OpenStreetMap, not the synagogue itself. The Jewish cemetery laid out by the congregation in 1886 survives on the Botjesweg at the corner of 't Veen, north-west of the village, and has been cared for by the local municipality (formerly Oosterbroek). A memorial at Zuidbroek railway station commemorates the deportations.
יש לכם משהו לתרום?
תמונות, מסמכים, סיפורי משפחה וזיכרונות מבית הכנסת ומהקהילה שלו עוזרים לשמור על ההיסטוריה שלו בחיים.
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