References to Jews living in Thalfang date back to the 17th Century. The community built its synagogue with an accompanying school room and located in the immediate vicinity of the protestant church in 1822.

It fell victim to the nationwide pogroms on the 10th of November 1938, with benches, fixtures and ritual objects being thrown out into the street and onto the neighbouring dung heap. The building was demolished, yet it wasn’t set ablaze. Members of the Jewish community were then forced to collect the books and sacred manuscripts and burn them in the marketplace.

The building fell into ruin following its destruction and was ultimately torn down in 1956 after a neighbour purchased the property from the Jewish religious and cultural community of Trier in the 1950s. A memorial plaque was erected in 2010 to commemorate the synagogue.

Photo documentation: Elmar Ittenbach, Thalfang