Community Obervorschütz (Gudensberg)

A local Jewish community can be proved at least since 1730 by the Jewish cemetery, documented since then, which belonged to the relatively large Jewish community of Gudensberg and for a long time was also the burial place of Jews from a number of other Jewish communities in the surrounding area. In 1835 there were already 45 Jewish inhabitants in Obervorschütz itself; in 1861 there were 47. In the last quarter of the 19th century their number declined sharply due to emigration to the USA and migration to larger German cities, so that in 1905 there were only 19 Jews living in the village. In 1932 there were only 7. This small remnant of the community was destroyed around 1938, and the "Gasthaus Adler", run by Germans of the Jewish faith, was no longer used after that. On October 12, 2003 the cemetery was desecrated by unknown persons. A picture documentation in the former Gudensberg synagogue commemorates this crime, which remains unsolved to this day. In March 2009, the first "Stolpersteine" were laid in the village to commemorate murdered former Jewish residents.