Jewish cemetery (Celle)

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Gravestones of the cemetery on the hill of a sand dune

The Jewish cemetery in Celle , the district town of the Lower Saxony district of Celle , is a protected cultural monument .

location

Entrance gate

The Jewish cemetery is located in the district of Hehlentor Am Berge / Hügelstrasse on a hill about three meters high on a sand dune. It is almost 2000 m² and has 288 tombstones .

History and description

In 1692 the princely government instructed the Jews of Celle to create a cemetery. The Jewish community only became full owner in 1704 and 1714 after the land was acquired. This makes the cemetery older than the synagogue, which was only built around 1740. In 1758 and 1879 the cemetery was expanded. The southern enclosure wall made of brickwork probably dates from 1885 (partially modernized). The oldest preserved tombstone dates from 1705. The burials began at the highest point. The graves there are typically oriented to the southeast (Jerusalem) and consist of large sandstone steles. The northern half of the cemetery dates from 1879 and has been containing tombstones since that time. The younger tombstones testify to the integration of the Jewish population when Christian tombstones were imitated and the Hebrew inscriptions were replaced by German ones. The last tombstone erected during the National Socialist era dates from 1943. In September 1944, the cemetery area became the property of the city at the same time as the synagogue; but it was not leveled.

A cemetery hall with a domed roof, designed by Otto Haesler in 1910 , which was devastated in 1938 and demolished in 1974 after a long vacancy , formerly belonged to the cemetery on the southwest corner of the property . At this point, of all things, there is a large distribution station for natural gas.

After the Second World War, the cemetery was occupied until 1953, mainly by members of the Jewish community of Celle, which was founded by displaced persons from the nearby Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . In 1951 the cemetery was restored with state funds. Owner from 1952 was the Jewish Trust Corporation (JTC); since 1959 the cemetery has been owned by the regional association of Jewish communities in Lower Saxony . The city of Celle has been responsible for maintaining the cemetery since 1953. Between 1962 and 1985 the cemetery was desecrated four times.

The cemetery, which is seldom open for guided tours, can be seen from the street due to its hillside location.

  • Hill location of the Jewish cemetery

  • Gravestones of the older part of the cemetery on the hill

  • Tombstones

  • Tombstones

  • Younger tombstones from the late 19th century in the northern cemetery area

literature

  • John Busch, Ralf Busch : Jewish community institutions in Celle. Synagogue, school and cemetery. In: John Busch, Jürgen Ricklefs (editor): On the history of the Jews in Celle. Festschrift for the restoration of the synagogue. Ed. Stadt Celle, Celle 1974, pp. 47-54.
  • Sabine Glattauer, Andrea Jensen, Katrin Keßler, Ulrich Knufinke: The buildings and facilities of the Jewish community of Celle. Synagoge, mikveh, cemetery (= small writings on the history of the city of Celle. Volume 2), Publishing House for Regional History , Bielefeld / Celle 1997, ISBN 3-89534-219-X , pp. 81–97.
  • Gernot Fischer: Celler Baudenkmale (= Celler contributions to regional and cultural history, series of publications by the city archive and the Bomann Museum. Volume 28), Celle 2000, ISBN 3-925902-40-6 , pp. 63–64.
  • Sibylle Obenaus : Celle. In: Herbert Obenaus (Ed. In collaboration with David Bankier and Daniel Fraenkel): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Volume 1 and 2. Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , pp. 394-421 (Jewish cemetery: pp. 397 f., P. 409, p. 415, p. 417, p. 418 f.)
  • Peter Bierschwale: If these stones could tell. City archivist Sabine Maehnert leads interested people through the Jewish cemetery in the Hehlentor area. In: Cellesche Zeitung. August 24, 2019, pp. 12-13.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Busch, Busch: Jewish community facilities in Celle. Synagogue, school and cemetery. 1974, p. 47.
  2. ↑ Busch, Busch: Jewish community facilities in Celle. Synagogue, school and cemetery. 1974, p. 51, with site plan and (difficult to read) grave numbers.
  3. ↑ Busch, Busch: Jewish community facilities in Celle. Synagogue, school and cemetery. 1974, p. 48.
  4. ↑ a b Busch, Busch: Jewish community institutions in Celle. Synagogue, school and cemetery. 1974, p. 51.
  5. ^ Fischer: Celle architectural monuments. 2000, p. 63.
  6. ↑ Glatter, Jensen, Keßler, Knufinke: The buildings and facilities of the Jewish community of Celle. Synagogue, mikveh, cemetery. 1997, p. 82.
  7. ↑ Glatter, Jensen, Keßler, Knufinke: The buildings and facilities of the Jewish community of Celle. Synagogue, mikveh, cemetery. 1997, p. 84.
  8. ^ Fischer: Celle architectural monuments. 2000, p. 64.
  9. ↑ a b c Glatter, Jensen, Keßler, Knufinke: The buildings and facilities of the Jewish community of Celle. Synagogue, mikveh, cemetery. 1997, p. 83.
  10. ↑ Herbert Obenaus (Ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 1 and 2 (1668 pp.), Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , pp. 418 f.

Coordinates: 52 ° 37 '57.6 "  N , 10 ° 4' 16.9"  E