Also known as Tselem in Jewish sources, Deutschkreuz was one of the Sheva Kehillot, (“Seven Communities) of Burgenland.
The Jewish community of Deutschkreuz was established around 1500, and from the 17th century it was under the protection of the house of Esterházy. Jews expelled from other communities found refuge here in 1671.
In 1911 there were 764 Jews in Deutschkreuz, in 1925 the number had fallen to 435, and in 1938 to 420. The Kultusgemeinde (Community organization) of Deutschkreutz included Baumgarten, Girm, Loipersbach, Mörbisch, Schattendorf and Unterpetersdorf. It had a Jewish primary school and a yeshiva (Talmudic college) that every autumn accepted about 30 young men aged between 15 and 25 from Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland. The students usually lived with local Jewish families. The two-year course was taught in Yiddish and trained ritual butchers and synagogue assistants.
Many prominent rabbis served in the community, among them Rabbi Menachem Katz, Elimelech Kahana and Levi-Itzchak Grunwald. The community maintained several communal institutions. There were prayer houses, a mikvah (Jewish ritual bath), a Chevra Kaddisha (burial organization for the Jewish community), a cemetery established in 1630, and a Beth Midrash (place of Torah study).
The local Jewish population was expelled so quickly after the annexation of Austria in 1938 that they had to leave most of their possessions behind. They were allowed to take only what they could carry; the plundering of private houses and shops started immediately. They were brought by car to Vienna from where they tried to save themselves by emigration.