The beautiful village of Allschwil (canton of Basel-Landschaft) lies at the border near the Sundgau (Alsace). Every day, tens of thousands of French citizens—frontaliers—cross the border for well-paid jobs in northwestern Switzerland. Hundreds of thousands live and work in Switzerland for the same reason. Across Switzerland, about 400,000 people are cross-border commuters. Switzerland is the largest employer in the surrounding EU-regions.

Allschwil

The city of Basel has been an industrial, commercial, and university city for centuries. In the 16th century, it was the capital of humanism, just as Geneva was the capital of Calvinism. For centuries, frontaliers have crossed the border daily in the Basel region. Among these, a particularly distinctive group was the Jewish population of the Sundgau, a southern region of Alsace.

Basel

After the 1349 pogrom and brief tolerance around 1400, Basel’s Jews were barred from living in the city from 1405 onward. Many moved to nearby villages and Alsace, but often kept working in Basel. These frontiersmen travelled daily to Basel into the 19th century. The situation changed after 1798.

The French occupied the old Confederation and established the Helvetic Republic (1798–1803). The occupation temporarily ended the cantons’ sovereignty, and Jews settled in Basel until 1805, though they received citizenship and permanent residency rights only in 1866.

Basel, The Synagogue (1869)

After 1866, a Jewish community redeveloped in Basel, including residents from Alsace. Due to pogroms in Alsace, more Jews moved to Basel, attracted by work opportunities and greater tolerance, despite earlier intolerance.

Today, Basel has a flourishing Jewish community. In contrast, the region of Alsace does not. Significantly, it was not the years of German occupation (1940–1945) but the period between 1900 and 1920 that marked the end of Jewish communities in this region.

Victor Saudan und Philippe Koerper

A small path from Allschwil to Hégenheim (Alsace) shows this history. Poet and performer Victor Saudan and musician Philippe Koerper, together with the Allschwil Museum, recently depicted the Judengässli through poetry and music.

The present-day Judengässli in Allschwil

For centuries, until the early 20th century, frontaliers crossed the Judengässli near Allschwil. They travelled to Basel and back to their homes in the Sundgau.

What is now a pleasant walk was then often an hours-long journey through cold, snow, wind, and rain. Several villages in the Sundgau, including Hégenheim, Hagenthal-le-Bas, and Hagenthal-le-Haut, symbolise this history.

The ‘Gate’ to Hégenheim

 Hégenheim

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the large Jewish community in Hégenheim comprised half the population. This community ranked as the eighth-largest in France. Many residents originated from northern Switzerland, including Basel, Allschwil, and the Birseck region.

The unique wooden memorial (Holz-Grabmal). Collection: Jüdisches Museum der Schweiz/Swiss Jewish Museum 

Residents established the Jewish cemetery in 1673, and it still serves Jewish residents from Switzerland today. The cemetery holds over 7,000 gravestones and features a unique wooden memorial plaque.

Basel was the main place of employment. The Judengässli was the daily route to work. Until the French period, Basel was not welcoming to Jews. Afterwards, a Jewish community emerged.

In Hégenheim and the Sundgau, the situation was reversed. Problems for the Jewish population began only after the French Revolution of 1789. Several pogroms occurred. Until the French Revolution, Jews in France were not free citizens. They had a dependent, but relatively safe status under the king and local landowners.

The Synagogue

The synagogue, built in 1740, was destroyed in 1815 and restored in 1821. Externally, the building deliberately shows no features of a synagogue, while the interior clearly reflects Jewish culture and religion. In the Sundgau as well, it was considered prudent not to display Jewish culture and religion too openly.

After Jewish residents were recognised as equal citizens of Switzerland in 1866, most Jewish people from the Sundgau emigrated, many heading to Basel. The main reasons were the Franco-Prussian War, Germany’s annexation of Alsace (1870–1871), antisemitism (the Dreyfus Affair), and job opportunities.

The synagogue in Hégenheim closed in 1920 after the Jewish community there ceased to exist. Today, the synagogue and its distinctive interior serve as a venue for musical performances. The organisation Le Ventre is renovating the synagogue to convert it into a cultural centre.

Hagenthal-le-Bas and Hagenthal-le-Haut

The villages of Hagenthal-le-Bas and Hagenthal-le-Haut (Alsace) also had a large Jewish community in the eighteenth century. The Jewish cemetery in Hagenthal-le-Bas is still accessible. The cemetery in Hagenthal-Le-Haut has fallen into disrepair and has virtually disappeared.

In 1784, Hagenthal-le-Bas had 356 Jewish inhabitants, and Hagenthal-le-Haut had 271, accounting for almost half the population. By the end of the First World War, these communities had disappeared.

The Jewsh cemetery in Hagenthal-le-Bas

Only the name Rue de la Synagogue in Hagenthal-le-Bas remains as a reminder of the former synagogue. The synagogue in Hagenthal-le-Haut was demolished in 1903.

In 1789, the year of the French Revolution, the first pogrom took place. In 1848, another year of revolution in France, another pogrom occurred in this region. Afterwards, most of the Jewish inhabitants emigrated, with Basel being their most common destination.

Impressions from Hégenheim