Jewish community (Unthought)

Ungedanken is a southwestern district of Fritzlar in the Schwalm-Eder district (Hesse). The village has just under 1000 inhabitants.

In the beginning of the 17th century, the first Jews, who were probably refugees from Poland, settled in Ungedanken. From here they were able to trade in the immediately neighboring county of Waldeck, where Jews were not allowed to stay from sunset to sunrise. From 1864 on, there are reports of the existence of a synagogue, the construction costs of which amounted to 6000 Thaler, and an elementary school with 45 to 50 pupils. Around 1900, an exact date is not known, the school was dissolved. The synagogue building no longer exists. Only the cemetery, about 28 acres in size, still bears witness to the settlement of Jewish families in Ungedanken. Towards the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century the community shrank considerably due to emigration and relocation, especially to Fritzlar, so that by 1915 there were only two Jewish families left in the village.