It was a scene you could easily imagine. The archives of Diepholz were in the town’s municipal building, but buried in the cellar. We descended a short spiral staircase to a musty basement filled with the records of the town dating back at least 3 centuries. There was copy equipment that looked as if it was at least as old as the town records. This was an archive not only of the records of the inhabitants, but also of all of the old office equipment the town had ever used.
The archivist, Herr Falk Liebezeit, was waiting for us. Imagine now a 6 foot 2 inch Pillsbury dough boy, but with a mustache. That was Herr Liebezeit. His office was piled high with papers of all kinds – newspapers, magazines, books, historical documents and ledgers filled with names, dates and statistics of every sort. He was extremely genial and clearly relished getting visitors and having the chance to speak about the history of the town of Diepholz, particularly the Jewish history there as he co-authored a book on that subject. Herr Liebezeit turned out to be a delightful source, who freely shared everything he could locate.
Diepholz is a town of about 15 thousand inhabitants. It plays an important role in our family history as this is where my great grandfather, Julius Romberg, along with his wife Fredericka, settled for most of their adult life. Julius was born in Lengerich, where his family had settled in the 1820’s. He most likely moved to Diepholz sometime in the 1860’s. His father, Nathan Romberg, died in 1865 and Julius was the primary heir and executor of his father’s will. As such, he laid claim to a Torah scroll that Nathan had purchased for the Jewish community of Lengerich. Julius brought it to Diepholz and was promptly sued by the Jewish community of Lengerich, which claimed the scroll as their own. Julius prevailed in the German courts, so I presume the Torah stayed in Diepholz. I am trying to learn its fate. Herr Liebezeit had no clue as to that, but did give me the email contact of perhaps the last former Jewish resident of Diepholz, now 90 years old and living in Israel.
The history of the Jews in Diepholz is interesting as it is a refraction of the greater European Jewish history – especially in countries like Germany. The first Jews to live in Diepholz, Samuel and Simon Moses, arrived in 1684. They were sent by the Prussian Kaiser to provide a means of extending credit to the farmers and small merchants in the area. At that time, Christians were forbidden from charging other Christians interest. So, typical to the Jewish story in Europe, Jews were the agents for providing finances. The Moses brothers could not charge more than 9%. They could take clothing as collateral, but this meant stricter terms for the loan recipients, as clothing depreciates rapidly. As an interesting side point, the Torah discourages using a person’s coat as collateral for a loan.
Jews were considered servants of the Kaiser and not allowed to own property. They were provided with a place to rent and had to pay protection money to the municipality. Jewish fortunes in all of Prussia changed for the better by the late 18th century through the relatively liberal policies of Frederick the Great. But the Jewish population of Diepholz probably grew a lot more after the end of Napolean’s occupation of much of Germany between 1810 and 1814, as Napolean introduced very liberal polices governing Jews. Christians were no longer forbidden to lend money and more occupations opened up to Jews, so after 1814 the Jewish population began to increase.
Now comes something interesting to ponder. The original family name for the Rombergs is Moses. Nathan Romberg was born Nathan Moses and changed his name sometime in the 1820’s. It is possible (but this is only speculation) that Julius was a distant relative to Samuel and Simon Moses, and the presence of their family in Diepholz could have been a reason as to why he moved there. His occupation was that of a low end fur and clothing merchant – truly the “schmatta” business!
A building for a synagogue was purchased by the Jews of Diepholz in 1835. The synagogue also served the small Jewish populations of some very small nearby towns as well. Herr Liebezeit and I agreed that the likelihood was this was a Liberal/Reform congregation for a few reasons. First, there was no rabbi present to enforce Jewish law. Jewish life was led by a series of teachers who were often both secular teachers as well as religious teachers, but not rabbis. This was a rather remote area and the very observant would have a hard time finding some of the basic necessities to live a halachic life.
The census of 1871 records a total population of 2,686 of which 48 were Jews. This must have been the highest level of Jewish population as by the census of 1901 there were 500 more people in Diepholz, but 18 less Jews. Julius and Fredericka Romberg are part of the census of 1871. Most interesting is that the official life cycle records for the town, as with all German communities, were the ones kept by the religious institutions. So the synagogue records of the period show all Jewish marriages, births and deaths. We found and photocopied records for many of the children of Julius and Fredericka.
By 1871 the first united Germany was established and the town records became official. We found a page detailing the birth death and marriages of my grandfather, Walter. Here we had a bit of a shock. The record of the date of Walter’s first marriage shows that he was forced to marry my grandmother because she was already pregnant with my father. I do not know if Dad ever realized he was the product of a shotgun wedding.
The Jewish Observer 