Hattem
Jewish presence in Hattem dates to the eighteenth century. The early Jewish residents of the town founded a synagogue but this ceased to function prior to 1790. During the first decades of the nineteenth century, a few Jews, of both Askenazic and Portuguese extraction, resided in Hattem. The community flourished anew during the second half of the nineteenth century and, in 1873, established a synagogue on the Achterstraat.
Synagogue in Hattem, ca. 1975
-RDMZ
Ten years later, the community purchased ground for a cemetery at Het Veen, adjacent to the public cemetery, the Kerkhofdijk. Regardless, the Jews of Hasselt were not formally organized into an official Jewish community until 1887. Local Jewish organizations included a three-member synagogue council, a fellowship for the study of the Talmud, a burial society, and a women's society for the upkeep of the synagogue.
Under the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War, the majority of the Jews of Hasselt were deported and subsequently murdered in Nazi death camps. A few local Jews managed to survive the war in hiding. The interior of the synagogue was damaged during the war and the Torah scrolls disappeared without a trace. In 1954, the Hattem community was administratively merged into that of Apeldoorn but was transferred to the Jewish community of Zwolle in 1960. The cemetery is now cared for by the local authorities.
In April 2006 a plaque in memory of the 29 Jews from Hattem and surroundings who were murdered in the war, was unveiled at the wall of the former synagogue.
The Jewish population of Amersfoort and surroundings:
The size of the Jewish community over time
1809
18
1840
45
1869
55
1899
42
1930
43