As in other places in Germany, the Jews were driven out of the towns during the plague pogroms in the Middle Ages. The fate of the Jews in Kempen was similar.

Only around the year 1800 Jews again settled in the city and set up a prayer room, which was located in the street that was later called Judenstraße. Not far from this street, a synagogue and a private Jewish school were built.

Erich Zlotnicki, born February 6, 1898 in Berlin, son of Theresa Zlotnicki; deported March 1, 1943 on the 31st Eastern Transport from Berlin to the Auschwitz death camp,
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Wilhelm Zadek, born in Magdeburg on November 9, 1890; deported from Berlin to the Theresienstadt ghetto on December 17, 1942, and from there to the Auschwitz extermination camp on January 23, 1943