Between 1298 and 1520 hundreds of Jews were persecuted, murdered and driven out of Rothenburg on several different occasions. Centuries later, in 1875, eight families founded a new community, which grew to 100 members in 1910. However after Nazis came to power in 1933, anti-Semitism increased considerably in Rothenburg. The last Jews were forced to leave the town on October 10, 1938. Their destiny is unknown.
An Allied bombing raid in 1945 destroyed most of Rothenburg's Jewish buildings. Most of them have been rebuilt or restored since WWII. One was the Jewish Dance Hall. The 13th century tombstones embedded in its garden wall were salvaged from the site of a former Jewish cemetery which is now a car park.
In 1998, on the 700th anniversary of the events of 1298, a memorial to the murdered Jews of Rothenburg was laid in the Castle Gardens.