Jewish cemeteries in Leer

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There were at least two Jewish cemeteries in Leer , of which the local community probably laid out the oldest in the first third of the 17th century. The cemetery in Loga is more recent. It was originally in the possession of the Counts von Wedel, who left the area to the Jews living in Loga as a burial place.

History of the Jewish cemetery on Groninger Strasse

The old Jewish cemetery in Leer.

A Jewish community had existed in Leer since the 17th century. First of all, she buried her deceased members in the Jewish cemetery in Aurich , but according to a tradition dating from 1822, she established her own cemetery as early as the first third of the century. At that time it was located far outside the city limits between Leer and the village of Leerort. The land required for the burial site was given to the community by the sovereign. It was near the location of the gallows , which is why the area was also referred to in the synagogue books as Galgenhöchte and Galgenvenne . It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the name Israeli cemetery caught on.

In 1692 the cemetery was so occupied that the community expanded it. Further enlargements took place in 1736 and 1822. Almost 70 years later the area was again too small, so that the community acquired another neighboring property in 1896, where the first burial took place in 1898. In 1896 the cemetery was again fully occupied. The community was able to acquire a new piece of land; the first burial took place on the extension area in 1898.

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the Jews in Leer suffered repression by state organs. That also applied to funerals. For example, at the burial of the war disabled Jakob Pels in November 1936, the city ordered the horses that were supposed to pull the hearse to be unhitched. The mourners were forced to pull the car themselves. With the funeral of Sophie Roseboom geb. The records in the synagogue books ended on June 11, 1939. In the same month the city acquired part of the cemetery and a few months later the National Socialists had the remaining Jewish population in Leer transported to the extermination camps . In 1940 they also ordered the oldest part of the cemetery to be cleared. The tombstones that were removed in the process were placed in a different location after 1945. During the Second World War , a shot down Jewish plane from England was buried in the cemetery.

In 1951 the cemetery became the property of the Jewish Trust Corporation . This handed over the oldest part two years later to the city of Leer and the remainder in 1959 to the regional association of Jewish communities in Lower Saxony . Funerals took place only a few after the end of the congregation. Between 1946 and 1985, a total of six people from Leer who had returned after 1945 found their final resting place in the cemetery. In 2012, the last burial so far took place in the cemetery.

Today about 237 tombstones are preserved in the 16.63  ares large cemetery.

History of the Jewish cemetery in Loga

The Jewish cemetery in Leer Loga

Loga never had its own synagogue community. The Jews living there were members of the synagogue community in Leer. When exactly they laid out the cemetery in Loga is unknown. The area was originally owned by the Counts of Wedel. They left it to the few Jewish families of Loga. The oldest surviving tombstone dates back to 1828, the first mention of it in 1860. The burial site has been owned by the city of Leer since 1983, which also took care of the maintenance when the property was purchased. 13 tombstones have been preserved.

See also

literature

  • Johannes Röskamp: On the history of the Jews in Leer . Leer 1985
  • Bernd Buttjer: Empty Jews in court. A dispute at the cattle market in Leer in 1926 . Leer 1985
  • Herbert Reyer, Martin Tielke (ed.): Frisia Judaica. Contributions to the history of the Jews in East Frisia . Aurich 1988, ISBN 3-925365-40-0
  • The end of the Jews in East Frisia. Catalog for the exhibition of the East Frisian landscape on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1988, ISBN 3-925365-41-9
  • Daniel Fraenkel: Empty. In: Herbert Obenaus (Ed. In collaboration with David Bankier and Daniel Fraenkel): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein, Göttingen 2005; ISBN 3-89244-753-5 ; Pp. 942-957

Web links

Commons : Jüdischer Friedhof Leer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Jewish Cemetery (Loga)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Christian Wienberg: Jewish cemeteries in Leer ( Memento from March 15, 2005 in the Internet Archive ).
  2. ↑ a b The Jewish cemeteries in Leer. In: Alemannia Judaica .
  3. ↑ Ostfriesen-Zeitung of May 24, 2012.
  4. ^ " The Jewish cemetery in Loga. In: Alemannia Judaica .

Coordinates: 53 ° 13 ′ 4.2 "  N , 7 ° 26 ′ 41.3"  E