History of the Jews in Königsberg

The "protected Jews", whose number was initially limited to a total of 203 families in all of Brandenburg-Prussia, were allowed to reside in a city but had no right of mobility.

In 1753 Frederick II allowed the city's Jews to build a Hasidic synagogue on Vordere Vorstadt's Schnürlingsdamm, which was completed in 1756.

Jewish emancipation occurred in 1812 during the Prussian reforms, but Jews were largely restricted from officer and government professions.

[9] The liberal Neue Synagoge (new synagogue) was built along Lindenstraße in Lomse from 1894 to 1896 to serve the majority of the Jewish population.

Königsberg's Jewish citizens were divided between Zionists and the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens.

[7] Due to anti-Semitism and persecution in the 1920s and 1930s,[11] Königsberg's Jewish population was in decline by the time of the Nazi Party took control through the Machtergreifung in 1933.

[12] Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany, enforced by Erich Koch, restricted business and led many Königsberg Jews to emigrate, mostly to the United States and Great Britain.

[12] Prominent Königsberg Jews who committed suicide during World War II were the esteemed councilor Paul Stettiner, consul Felix Japha and his wife, and the doctor Lotte Gottschalk.

[17] In addition, a subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp was operated in the city in 1944–1945, in which around 500 Jews were enslaved as forced labour.

[19][20] Today, a community of approximately 2000 Jews remains in the region,[21] with the New Synagogue having been rebuilt in 2018 in the same location, and as an exact replica of the building destroyed in 1938.