utterly destroyed on Kristallnacht (9 November 1938). Since 1954, the former synagogue has served as Eschwege's New Apostolic church. After 1933, some of the Jewish community's members left Eschwege or emigrated as Jews were being stripped of their rights and subjected to reprisals. Four hundred and twenty-one left in 1933 alone, many of them for the United States (80). In 1941 and 1942, the last hundred or so Jewish residents were deported to the death camps. After 1945, a displaced persons camp to lodge Jewish death camp survivors was set up under the supervision of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and lasted a few years. Almost all the camp dwellers emigrated to Israel once that state had been founded. The Jews left in Eschwege were in the long run too few in number to be able to form a community. Politics Town council The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results: Social Democrats and the FDP work together on town council. Executive The town's executive (Magistrat) is made up of two full-time members (Mayor Alexander Heppe [CDU] and treasurer Reiner Brill) and seven other councillors, of whom 3 are from the SPD, 2 from the CDU and one each from the FDP and the FWG. Mayor The current mayor is Alexander Heppe (CDU), who was elected mayor after winning 65.63% of the votes on 14 March 2021, increasing his majority over the candidate from the SPD. Coat of arms The town's arms might be described thus: Gules a castle embattled with two towers with peaked roofs argent, between the towers an ash twig with three pinnate leaves vert. The town of Eschwege has passed a bylaw governing the use of the coat of arms. Town partnerships Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France since 1989 Mühlhausen, Thuringia since 1989 Regen, Bavaria since 1997; town friendship since 1967 Moreover, there are sponsorship arrangements with the German Navy's supply ship Werra, the Eschwege of the Bundespolizei See and the Lufthansa aircraft D-ACPH, which has been christened Eschwege. Culture and sightseeing Museums Stadtmuseum Eschwege (town museum) Eschweger Zinnfiguren- und Miniaturenkabinett (tin figures and miniatures cabinet) “Freunde der Eisenbahn” (railway museum) Heimatmuseum in the scenic Old Town, has a marketplace surrounded by timber-frame houses. Buildings Eschwege still has a mediaeval town core with rows of timber-frame houses. Moreover, the following buildings are worth seeing: Neustädter Kirche St. Katharina (church) Marktkirche St. Dionys