Eßweiler

In Eßweiler existed a Jewish community until the beginning of the 20th century. Its origin goes back to the time of the second half of the 17th century For the first time 1698 four Jewish families are mentioned in the place. Between 1776 and 1780 there were three Jewish families in the place. In the 19th century the number of Jewish inhabitants developed as follows: 1801 8 Jewish inhabitants (2.4% of the total population), 1808 33, 1823 46 (7.9%), 1848 96 (in 20 families), 1867 85, 1900 18.The Jewish dwellings were located mainly in the area of Judengasse (today Läppchen), in Reih and in Hinterrot.

The Jewish community in Essweiler also included Jewish persons / families living in Hinzweiler.

In the 1840s, 10 to 12 Jewish families lived in the village, most of whom subsequently emigrated to North America. An article from 1881 reporting the visit of Simon Wolf from Hinzweiler, by then Consul General of the American government in Cairo, to his birthplace shows the continued attachment of the Jewish emigrants to their homeland. The official dissolution of the community was on January 24, 1906. The two Jewish families of Isidor and Sigmund Rothschild still living in the village joined the Jewish community a Kusel.

During the November pogrom of 1938, members of the SA from Altenglan and Theisbergstegen, reinforced by some supporters of the NSDAP from Jettenbach, as well as SA members from Kusel, who were traveling in the district and destroying Jewish property, entered and devastated the houses of the two Jewish families in Eßweiler.

In 1942, the family members, who had meanwhile moved to Frankfurt, the widower Isidor and his brother Sigmund Rothschild with his wife Blondine, were deported. The couple perished in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Two of their four daughters (Antonie and Marta) were also murdered in concentration camps; they lived in Amsterdam before their arrest. The other two daughters (Bella and Erna) and Isidor Rothschild's sons (Ludwig and Kurt) were able to emigrate and later lived in the USA.