Jewish Communities in Hamburg Jüdische Gemeinden Hamburg (522-1)

The Jewish Community of Hamburg has about 3500 members one of the largest Jewish communities in Germany. It forms within the nationwide Central Council of Jews in Germany an independent national association. The Jewish Communities in Hamburg began with the establishment of Sephardic Jews from Spain and Antwerp. They came around 1577, as they were expelled from Spain. The history of the Jews in Hamburg in Germany is recorded from at least 1590 on. The Jews of Hamburg have lived primarily in the Jewish neighborhoods of Grindel (de) and New Town, where the Sephardic Community „Newe Salom“ (Hebrew: נוה שלום‎‎) was established in 1652. Since 1612 there have been toleration agreements with the senate of the prevailingly Lutheran city. Also Reformed Dutch merchants and Anglican Britons made similar agreements before. In these agreements the Jews were not permitted to live in the Inner-City, though were also not required to live in ghettos. From 1600 onwards, also German Jews settled in Hamburg, but in 1649 Ashkenazi Jews were driven out of the city. From then on, only Sephardi Jews were permitted to live in Hamburg. Around 1925, about 20,000 Jews lived in Hamburg. In December 1937, the municipalities were forcibly combined to form a unitary community, the "Jewish Religious Association Hamburg." This was incorporated in 1942 to the "Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland." When the Nazis came to power, most synagogues were destroyed and soon the associated communities also were dissolved. In 1945, a Jewish community was founded by survivors of the Shoah. And finally in 1960 the new Synagogue "Hohe Weide" was built. [Source: Wikipedia and a finding aid from the source Archives]

Staatsarchiv Hamburg (Germany)

Source of acquisition is Hamburg State Archives, Germany (Staatsarchiv Hamburg). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the filmed collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum International Archival Programs Division in 2016. The collection Sign. 522-1, Jewish Community Hamburg, 1641-1945 constitutes reproductions of documents from the Hamburg State Archives (Sign. 741-4) and the Jewish General Archives in Jerusalem (Each Archives has a microfilmed version of the original documents which reside at the other Archives). Additionally reproduction contains also documents from the Jewish Community in Hamburg (19 microfilm reels).