Jewish cemeteries in Wittmund

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There were at least two Jewish cemeteries in Wittmund , the oldest of which is first mentioned in 1684.

history

The old Jewish cemetery in Wittmund on Finkenburgstrasse

The Berdum pastor Balthasar Arend mentioned for the first time in his description of the Harlingerland from 1684 a Jewish burial place in Wittmund, where the Jewish communities of Esens and the Jewish community of Neustadtgödens buried their dead. However, by 1690 the cemetery was fully occupied. Prince Christian Eberhard then instructed the Jews of Esens and Neustadtgödens to set up cemeteries at their places of residence.

It is unclear whether the burial site mentioned by Arend is the 3.77  ares large cemetery on Finkenburgstrasse that has survived to this day. Probably not the same. Use of the area by the Jewish community of Wittmund has only been guaranteed since the end of the 18th century. A century later the cemetery was full. An extension was impossible, since the area was now within the village and was built on all around. Ten tombstones are still preserved there today.

The Jewish cemetery in Wittmund on Auricher Strasse
Memorial for the murdered Jewish citizens of Wittmund

The community then bought a 17.35 acres plot of land outside the city limits at that time in Willen and opened a new burial site there in 1902. She used this until 1939, shortly before her demise during the Nazi era . After the end of the Second World War, the cemetery was cleared after 1953. Between 17 and 19 tombstones have been preserved there. In 1995, strangers desecrated the cemetery, where on September 3, 2000 a memorial consisting of three brick walls was inaugurated for the Jews who perished from Wittmund during the Nazi era.

See also

literature

  • 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: Wittmund. In: Herbert Obenaus (Ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 ; Pp. 1567-1573
  • Edzard Eichenbaum (Ed.): The Wittmunder Synagoge - Against forgetting . In: Heimatverein Wittmund e. V. Local history sheets , Wittmund 2005, issue 2
  • Edzard Eichenbaum: Genealogy of 21 Jewish families from Wittmund in words and pictures , unpublished
  • Edzard Eichenbaum: Documentation of the Jewish cemeteries in Wittmund 1 and 2 with information , unpublished

Web links

Commons : Jüdischer Friedhof Auricher Straße (Wittmund)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Jüdischer Friedhof Finkenburgstrasse (Wittmund)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wittmund (Finkenburgstraße) In: Overview of all projects for the documentation of Jewish grave inscriptions in the area of ​​the Federal Republic of Germany. Lower Saxony.
  2. ^ Wittmund (Auricher Strasse) . In: Overview of all projects for the documentation of Jewish grave inscriptions in the area of ​​the Federal Republic of Germany. Lower Saxony.
  3. ↑ a b The Jewish cemeteries in Wittmund. In: Alemannia Judaica .

Coordinates: 53 ° 34 ′ 42.8 "  N , 7 ° 46 ′ 46.7"  E