Between the 1860s and 1938 , Eisenach hosted one of the largest Jewish communities in Thuringia with nearly 500 members at the beginning of the 20th century . Many Jews migrated from the Rhön area around Stadtlengsfeld to Eisenach after their emancipation in the early 19th century . The new synagogue was built in 1885 and destroyed by the Nazis during '' Kristallnacht '' in November 1938 . Most Jews emigrated at that time , others were deported to concentration camps and murdered there . Before the Second World War , BMW had produced motorcycles in the town . In preparation for World War II , new barracks were established in Eisenach and the car industry started the production of military equipment . After 1940 , around 4,000 forced labourers ( most of them from the Soviet Union ) were pressed to work in the town 's factories , where some of them died due to the bad working conditions . Postwar , the managing director of the BMW aircraft engine works , Dr Schaaf , told the Fedden Mission there were as many as 11,000 working in the town , 4,500 in a plant inside a hillside turning out BMW 132 engines and parts for the 801 , the rest in town . The bombings during the war destroyed about 2,000 housing units and big parts of the car factories , as well as some historic buildings in the town centre , which were rebuilt soon after the war . The US Army arrived in Eisenach on 6 April 1945 , but the Soviets took over control of the town on 1 July 1945
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Eisenach