Before 1301 – 1349
Only merchants/traders were allowed to settle on the Breisach rock according to a contract between Heinrich, bishop of Basel, and King Henry V.
“Smariant the Jew of Breisach our citizen” and his sons, his neighbor Salman of Berne, Viveli, Löwe and Gutele: not separated from their Christian neighbors, Jewish traders enjoyed this privilege for 30 years and lived on the mons brisiacus before the violent end of their community. Of fourteen houses that were owned by Jews in 1325, ten were located in the upper town and only four in the lower part of the town. According to the list of homesteads of 1319 the money lender Smariant and his neighbor Salman lived on “the Empire’s free road”, very close to Radbrunnen.
The first Jewish community of Breisach too, fell victim to the pogroms rampant in all of Europe. When the plague rampaged, the Jews were accused of having poisoned the wells. The memor book of Deutz memorizes the martyrium of the Jews of Breisach in 1349. “Jiskor Elohim – may God remember the murdered and burned of the communities in Basel, Ehnheim, Kaysersberg, Breisach, Sennheim, Ehnheim, Rosheim with the souls of Abraham, Isaak, Jakob, Sara, Rebekka, Rahel and Lea and with the other righteous ones who are in the garden Eden. Amen. Sela.”
