• Introduction
• History
• Key Dates
• Disability and Access

• Touring the area
• Places of interest
• Post a comment

As in the First World War the aftermath of the Second World War brought a depression to the local economy for similar reasons. Thus there could have been no incentive for former residents to return and rebuild their homes, businesses and community life.

This was the effective end of the community. The last mention of the Dover community was in the 1940 Jewish Year Book - after that there is nothing.

It may be added that the Dover Jewry did for a moment have a flash of wartime recognition and glory. A Dover born Jew, Thomas Gould, gained the only Victoria Cross given to a Jewish serviceman in the war. As a Petty Officer aboard the submarine HMS Thrasher, Gould heroically removed two unexploded bombs lodged in the casing of his submarine. Apart from the risk of explosion, Gould also knew that if the submarine came under attack while it remained on the surface, the submarine would have been forced to dive with him trapped in the casing where he would have drowned. He recieved his V.C. from King George VI, in 1942. It is also of note that Gould's father was killed in a Naval action in the First World War when he was only two years old and his name can be found inscribed on the town's War memorial.

In 1950 the Dover Harbour Board made a compulsory purchase of the destroyed synagogue and this in many senses was the final scene for a community that had survived for more than two centuries and one that had been both made and broken by its commerce with the military and the navy.