Synagogue dead end (Dittelsheim-Heßloch)

In 1740 there were meanwhile eight Jewish families living in the village. Together with the four Jewish families living in Gabsheim, you managed to get permission from the local government to establish a "Judenschule". In this building, which became Jewish community center after the construction of the synagogue in 1836, there were probably a prayer room and the schoolroom for teaching the children (possibly the rooms were identical). 
  
In 1836 a new synagogue could be built. In it there was also a ritual bath (mikvah). The cost of the construction was 1,400 guilders, plus 55 guilders for chairs, lectern, candlesticks and chandeliers, and 20 guilders for the boiler and pump in the ritual bath. The synagogue was built of rubble stone and plastered. On the street side there were two entrances (men's entrance with the date 1836, on the other side the women's entrance in the area of the barn door, which collapsed after 1945), between which there were two round-arched windows (still preserved).  
  
Until the 1930s, the synagogue in Hessloch was the center of Jewish community life in the village. During the November pogrom in 1938 the synagogue was desecrated and vandalized by National Socialists.  In 1939, the last community leader Siegmund Krautkopf tried to sell the building to the political community for 600 RM. The latter paid (with a fire insurance value of RM 3,150) for the purchase RM 400.  In 1942 the municipality sold the building to private individuals for RM 700. In connection with the restitution proceedings after 1945 the new owner had to pay the amount of 1,400 DM and a mediation fee of 140 DM to the Jewish community in Mainz. The new owner replaced the floor with a concrete floor and broke a wide gate into the building in place of the women's entrance. Inside, numerous traces are preserved to this day (toranic, beam holes for the women's gallery, traces of paint, etc.).
 
On November 9 1986 - in connection with the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the synagogue building in Heßloch - a memorial plaque was placed on the former synagogue. However, the plaque (owned by the civic community) was later removed by the owner of the building.