the Province of Rhenish Hesse was abolished, and until the end of the Second World War, the municipality belonged to the district of Oppenheim or Alzey. On 20 March 1945, towards 16:00, United States troops occupied the village. Rhineland-Palatinate and Federal Republic of Germany At first Bechtolsheim belonged to the French Zone of Occupation and there became, as part of the Regierungsbezirk of Rheinhessen (Rhenish Hesse), part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Alzey-Worms district. With the creation of Verbandsgemeinden in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1969 and 1970, some of the administration was yielded to the Verbandsgemeinde of Alzey-Land. Religion As at 31 December 2008, among inhabitants whose main dwelling is in Bechtolsheim, more than 53% are Evangelical Christians and more than 26% are Roman Catholic. More than 16% have no religious persuasion. The rest of the inhabitants, roughly 5%, are split among various religious affiliations. Both Christian denominations are equally entitled to use the simultaneous church. The Catholic parish belongs to the Catholic Deaconry of Alzey – Gau-Bickelheim, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz, while the Evangelical parish belongs to the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau. The Evangelical parish office in Bechtolsheim also oversees the parishes in Biebelnheim, Ensheim and Spiesheim. The Catholic parish belongs, together with Biebelnheim to the Gau-Odernheim parish office. From the 18th century through to the mid-1930s there was a small Jewish community. For institutions the Jews had a synagogue or prayer room which is believed to have been set up in an existing building in 1845, and which served as the Jewish community's religious centre until some time between 1900 and 1910. Owing to the sharp drop in the Jewish population the synagogue was closed, and in 1925, the run down building was torn down in 1925. As well as a synagogue, there were a yeshiva and a mikveh. The dead were buried in the Jewish graveyard within Gau-Odernheim's municipal limits on a ridge at the Petersberg (mountain). 1804 39 Jewish inhabitants 1808 12 Jewish households 1824 66 Jewish inhabitants 1830 66 Jewish inhabitants 1855 80 Jewish inhabitants 1861 46 Jewish inhabitants 1900 19 Jewish inhabitants 1905 19–20 Jewish inhabitants (1.8% of a total population of 1134) 1924 16 Jewish inhabitants 1933 10 Jewish inhabitants After 1933, almost all the Jewish inhabitants either pulled out or emigrated in the face of systematic stripping of their rights and reprisals. Population development The figures for