Jewish cemeteries in Unna

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Memorial at the Jewish cemetery in Unna

The Jewish cemeteries in Unna are the no longer existing Judengraben and the so-called New Cemetery in Unna , the district town of the district of the same name in North Rhine-Westphalia .

The first Jewish cemetery

It is not known when the Unna Jewish community was allowed to set up a Jewish cemetery . The first Jewish cemetery, the so-called "Judengraben", was located directly in front of the city ​​wall between the morning gate and the cattle gate. No longer recognizable today, it can be located roughly between Morgenstrasse and Bahnhofstrasse, in the area of ​​the war memorial . A lease for this property has not been received. This parcel is said to have been left to the Jews without rights. Since according to the Jewish religion there is an eternal right of rest, this is rather unlikely. However, it is documented that the use of grass in this part of the trench was otherwise leased by the city of Unna. The cemetery was in use until 1853/1854.

After the opening of the new cemetery, the Jewish community board - contrary to old laws - allowed the community members to remove the tombstones for private use. The then city archivist Willi Timm found what is probably the only surviving tombstone of the “Judengraben” as a stepping stone at a house on the church square. This house no longer stands because it had to give way to the construction of the sexton's house. The son of the former home owner, the journalist Wilhelm Sternfeld , who was then living in London , remembered that his father had brought this stone home with him. He believed he belonged to the family. However, the translation of the Hebrew text showed that it was the tomb of Rahel, wife of Jachiel Dreifuss, who died of inflammation at the age of 38 on March 27, 1829 at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Her husband was the head of the Jewish community in Unna at the time.

This stone was moved to the new cemetery at the instigation of the Dortmund Community of Culture.

The second Jewish cemetery

Jewish Cemetery Unna (2010)

The current Jewish cemetery in Unna was in continuous use from 1854 to 1942 and is divided as follows: From the main path, five rows of graves lead off to the left and four rows to the right. The left and right grave fields are divided into almost equally large fields by two side paths each. The actual burial field is followed by a piece of lawn. The cemetery has a total of 198 graves with 147 partly bilingual tombstones on an area of ​​1376 m².

The burial ground of the Israelite old people's home is, with exceptions, in the left part of the cemetery. It begins about in the middle next to the tombstone of the first burial, in the 5th row on the left. It was buried there from 1911 to 1916. In row 4 in the grave field on the left was buried from 1916 to 1918. The third row shows burials from 1921 to 1936 and the second from 1924 to 1929. The first row of the left field was occupied with burials from 1932 and 1940. In the right field there is a burial from 1907 in the 1st row, two from 1906 in the 2nd row and two from 1911, one from 1910, two from 1911 and one from 1908 in the 3rd row. The fourth and last row has burials from 1931 to 1935. The occupancy of members of the Israelite old people's home results from the data of the tombstones themselves and from the address books of those years.

Jewish cemetery in Unna, Massener Strasse (2018)
Entrance to the Jewish cemetery at Unna Massener Strasse No. 55

On July 17, 1854, the Unna Jewish community acquired a piece of land on Massener Strasse. The exchange of goods between the assessor Hueck and the community took place earlier. This cemetery was put into use with the burial of Helene Culp, née Maibaum, who died on April 29th. This grave is located in the left part of the cemetery, almost in the middle of the hedge that borders the property today. About 20 years later, around 1875, the Chewra Kadisha was formed .

The fate of the Marcus family should not go unmentioned. On November 13, 1938, after the November pogroms , Emil Marcus, his wife Bertha and his daughter Elsbeth committed suicide in various ways . The next day their bodies were in the morgue of the Westfriedhof. Since there are no graves of theirs, it is likely that their corpses, such as those of Armin Holländer, who was found dead on September 15, 1941, were buried. According to the death certificate, the latter died of heart failure . According to rumors, he is said to have hanged himself on the bed frame. The aforementioned was buried without a coffin or gravestone. The gravedigger remembered being told to bury the body somewhere. He was not allowed to leave a burial mound or mark the spot. The grave had to be flattened immediately.

Bernhard Isaac emigrated to his son Rudi in South Africa in 1945 and died there on December 16, 1959. As he wanted to be buried in Unna's homeland, he was cremated and found his final resting place on the grave of his son Erhard, who died in 1934 by suicide. The last funeral to date took place with him. His grave is about in the middle of the hedge to the Beethovenring in the right part of the cemetery.

See also

literature

  • Willy Timm (ed.): On the history of the Jews in Unna . Verlag der Kleine Hellweg-Bücherei Unna, Unna 1973, ISBN 3-87298-012-2 .
  • Jews in Unna traces of their history (publication series of the city of Unna, volume 25). Public relations department, Unna 1993, ISBN 3-927082-25-2 .

Web links

Commons : Jüdischer Friedhof (Unna)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 5 ″  N , 7 ° 40 ′ 51 ″  E