Doetinchem

In 1636, a Jewish physician received permission to settle in Doetinchem. By the end of the seventeenth century, a number of Jews resided in Doetinchem and, by the eighteenth century, a small Jewish community had come into being. Most of the Jews in Doetinchem had come from across the nearby German border, mainly from Kleef.

The majority of the Jews of Doetinchem worked as traders. In addition, the local lending bank was run by Jews. Nevertheless, a large part of the community lived in poverty, even as late as the nineteenth century. A distillery established during the second half of the nineteenth century by the Jewish Van Perlstein family came to play an important role in the economy of Doetinchem. During the early twentieth century, several Jews served on Doetinchem's town council.

Doetinchem's first synagogue, dating from the second half of the eighteenth century, was located near the town walls, not far from the Grutport. In 1878, a new synagogue was built on the Waterstraat. During the early twentieth century, a conflict led to the establishment of a breakaway second community which held religious services in a private residence in the Nieuwstad neighborhood of Doetinchem. The Jewish cemetery on the IJkenweg was established in approximately 1770; the stone with oldest legible inscription is dated 1792.

Despite the poverty of the Jews of Doetinchem, the community managed to maintain a school offering religious education and lessons in Yiddish. The school eventually received permanent quarters in the new synagogue in the Waterstraat.

Voluntary organizations in the Doetinchem community included the synagogue council, a women's club, a choral society, a friendship club, and a burial society. In 1907, a community center was dedicated. The center, located on the IJsselkade, contained a religious school, an apartment for the school's teacher, a meeting hall, and a ritual bath.

In November, 1940, six months into the German occupation of the Netherlands, students at Doetinchem's Municipal Lyceum held a strike to protest the firing of Jewish teachers. In the autumn of 1941, following the expulsion of Jewish children from public education, a regional Jewish school was opened in Doetinchem. The majority of the Jews of Doetinchem were deported between October, 1941 and April, 1943. Although a few dozen Doetinchem Jews managed to survive the war in hiding, all of the deportees were murdered at German concentration camps. A number of Jews who had been members of the Dutch National Socialist Party (NSB) were held at a prison camp near Doetinchem prior to their deportation to Theresienstadt.

The synagogue on the Waterstraat was destroyed during a wartime bombardment. The community's school building was destroyed by fire in 1976. Following a conflict with the NIK (the national organization of Dutch Jewry), the Doetinchem community joined with the Jewish community of the town of Terborg to form the NIG De Achterhoek (Netherlands Israelite Community of the Achterhoek region). In 2002, an organization was formed to create a monument to commemorate the rich past of Jewish Doetinchem.

Jewish population of Doetinchem and surroundings:

1809	151
1840	186
1869	187
1899	255
1930	161
1951	34
1971	28
1998	43

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Collectie en mediatheek

 Dossier  
Dossiers (158) van de Commissie voor Oorlogsschade mbt 155 joodse
gemeentes (Amsterdam en mediene), 1945-1950.
Collectie > Documenten > 00005954

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 [Oranje Bitter Extract]  1930-1940
Cylindrische 37,5 centiliterfles met lange, naarboventoe taps lopende hals van groen
glas. Op de fles zijn drie etiketten bovenelkaar geplakt. Om de hals een kleine ...
Collectie > Museumstukken > 08868

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 Prentbriefkaart  1934 (ca.)
Prentbriefkaart van de synagoge in Doetinchem, 1934.
Collectie > Fotos > 40000914

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 [Binnenland] : Benoemingen  
Benoemingen door de Permanente Commissie in diverse schoolbesturen.
Collectie > Joodse pers > 20031865

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 Joodse oorlogsmonumenten in de provincie Gelderland : alsmede algemene...  2005
Joodse oorlogsmonumenten in de provincie Gelderland : alsmede algemene
oorlogsmonumenten waarop joodse namen voorkomen.
Collectie > Literatuur > 12013463

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 [Overname distilleerderij van Perlstein]  
Distilleerderij van Perlstein houdt op een familiebedrijf te zijn. De huidige eigenaar,
fam. van Gent, kocht het (in 1864 door de familie van Perlstein opgezette ...
Collectie > Audiovisueel > 40001772