Im Entenpfuhl
56727 Mayen
Germany
Already in the Middle Ages there was a prayer room or a synagogue (called 1313).
In the 18th century a prayer hall may have been established again. Until 1855 this was in a building in the Keutelstraße. In the middle of the 19th century, the construction of a new synagogue had become urgently necessary due to the rapidly increasing number of Jewish residents. The community was able to acquire a plot of land "Im Entenpfuhl" in 1854 and presumably began building a new synagogue in the same year. 1855 took place the consecration of the synagogue.
In the following decades, structural changes or repairs were made again and again. Among them, in 1902, the women's gallery was expanded, creating two extensions on both long sides of the building.
During the November pogrom in 1938, the synagogue was desecrated by SA people, the interior furnishings smashed, piled up and doused with gasoline. The synagogue burned down completely. The fire department that was called in was limited to protecting the neighboring buildings. The burnt ruins of the synagogue were demolished a little later.
On April 9, 1981, a memorial plaque to the synagogue was inaugurated; it bears the inscription, "Here stood the synagogue of the Jewish community of Mayen from 1855-1938. It was destroyed on 10.11.1938. The city of Mayen 1980". On Bürresheimer Straße, a memorial in the form of a large Star of David commemorates the Jews deported and killed from Mayen The inscription reads: "In memory of the Jews from Mayen. Once fellow citizens; then persecuted, expelled, annihilated"; further on the back is written: "We recognize, Lord, our wrong; the guilt of our fathers: Yes sinned against you (Jer. 14:20)."
