The history of the Jewish community of Oldenburg dates back to the 14th century . Towards and during the 19th century , the Jews in Oldenburg were always around 1 % of the total population , and by that time had acquired their own synagogue , cemetery and school . Most of them were merchants and businessmen . On 1938 Kristallnacht , the town men were led to Sachsenhausen concentration camp , among them Leo Trepp , the community Rabbi who survived and later became an honorary citizen of Oldenburg and honored by a street named after him . Since 1981 an annual commemoration walk ( Erinnerungsgang ) has been held by Oldenburg citizens in memory of the deportation of the Oldenburg Jews on November 10 , 1938 . Those who remained after 1938 immigrated to Canada , USA , United Kingdom , Holland or Mandatory Palestine . After World War II , a group of survivors returned to the city and maintained a small community until it was dissolved during the 1970s . Nevertheless , due to Jewish emigration from the former USSR to Germany in the 1990s , a community of about 340 people is now maintaining its own synagogue , cemetery and other facilities . The old Jewish cemetery , which is no longer active after the opening of a new one , was desecrated twice in 2011 and 2013
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Oldenburg