Jewish cemetery (Esens)
The Jewish cemetery in Esens is located outside the historical city center of Esens on Mühlenweg. It is open to the public. The cemetery has not been used since the fall of the associated community at the time of National Socialism . The local National Socialists desecrated the cemetery either in November 1938 or in 1940. In doing so, they completely destroyed the facility. Only the fragments of thirteen tombstones remained , which have since been put back on the site.
history
The Jewish community of Esens initially buried its dead in the Jewish cemetery in Wittmund . You were obliged to entertain it. However, by 1690 the local cemetery was fully occupied. Prince Christian Eberhard thereupon instructed the Jews to build cemeteries in their places of residence. In Esens, this was initially difficult. The elders of the community, Moses Benjamin and David Josephs, managed to buy a garden from the citizen and surgeon Johann Adam Müller in 1701. However, plans to create a cemetery there failed due to the resistance of the Esensian princely chancellery, which prevented the burial of a child who died a little later on this property. At the beginning of February 1702, the Esens Jewish community finally acquired another small piece of land on a long lease. At that time it was “far outside the city”. It was probably the Jewish cemetery on Mühlenweg that has survived to this day. At the time of its establishment, it was "in the midst of farmland and pastures near the fork in the road between the old post road to Aurich (today Nobiskruger Weg) and the Moorweg (today Mühlenweg), which led via today's Wagnersfehn to Schoo Abbey". With the construction of the cemetery, the Esensians finally broke away from the Jewish community in Wittmund.
In the first half of the 19th century, the burial site was in a badly overgrown condition. Complaints rose that "gravestones and monuments have been damaged by the 'cattle overflow'". In connection with the construction of the road from Esens to Aurich, the municipality was able to expand the cemetery by an additional plot of land in 1858. It was probably during this time that she also commissioned the re-fencing of the area and provided the burial site with a new entrance gate. Apparently, strangers damaged it several times in the period that followed, so that the congregation felt compelled to store it in the synagogue in winter so that it would not be "spoiled or ruined by bad people". At the end of the 19th century, Esens grew beyond its historical center. The city limits moved closer to the cemetery. From 1883, the tracks of the new railway line also ran directly south of the cemetery. In 1913 the community had the area re-pacified. For this purpose, she had a new, 50-meter-long iron grating made to enclose the cemetery, which is no longer preserved.
It is unclear when the National Socialists desecrated the cemetery. Either this happened in connection with the November pogroms in 1938 or in 1940, when they smashed most of the gravestones. Parts of the tombs were then apparently used to repair potholes on Mühlenweg.
In 1946 the cemetery was temporarily cleared. The remains of the broken tombstones were discovered in a heap at the edge of the forest. The larger fragments were then returned to the cemetery. In November 1948, three men stood trial for the devastation of the cemetery. The act could not be resolved. The judge acquitted the three defendants. During this time, the city of Esens planned to erect a memorial on the western part of the cemetery, but did not erect a memorial stone until 1959.
The Jewish Trust Corporation for Germany in London had owned the cemetery grounds since 1952 , from which it was transferred to the State Association of Jewish Congregations of Lower Saxony in 1961 .
The cemetery went wild in the following years until the city of Esens had it repaired in the 1970s. The eastern half of the area was then sold as building land. On the western half, the Esens city administration, in cooperation with the regional association of Jewish communities in Lower Saxony, created a green area and erected a memorial on it to commemorate the members of Esen's Jewish community. A wreath has been laid there on the day of national mourning since 1978. The last time the cemetery was redesigned was in 1981/82. The city had all the remaining tombstones erected and put together with the preserved tombstones and fragments to form a group. Where they originally stood could no longer be determined. Therefore, the stones could only be set up again symbolically. They no longer designate the graves of the people they are supposed to remember.
See also
literature
- Ostfriesisches Kultur- und Bildungszentrum der Ostfriesische Landschaft (Ed.): From the history of the Aurich Jewish community 1592-1940 , volumes 1 and 2, 4th edition, Aurich 1982.
- Esens. In: Herbert Obenaus et al. (Ed.): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 .
- Herbert Reyer, Martin Tielke (ed.): Frisia Judaica. Contributions to the history of the Jews in East Friesland , Aurich 1988, ISBN 3-925365-40-0 .
- Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft (Ed.): The end of the Jews in Ostfriesland , catalog for the exhibition of the Ostfriesische Landschaft on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Aurich 1988, ISBN 3-925365-41-9 .
Web links
- Esens. In: Overview of all projects for the documentation of Jewish grave inscriptions in the area of the Federal Republic of Germany. Lower Saxony.
- Jewish cemetery in Esens. In: Alemannia Judaica .
- Documentation of the grave inscriptions. (PDF; 443 kB) In: Alemannia Judaica .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Esens. In: Overview of all projects for the documentation of Jewish grave inscriptions in the area of the Federal Republic of Germany. Lower Saxony.
- ↑ a b c d e Ecumenical Working Group Jews and Christians in Esens: The Jewish Cemetery in Esens , viewed on February 25, 2013.
- ↑ a b Esen's Jewish cemetery. In: Alemannia Judaica .
Coordinates: 53 ° 38 ′ 13.3 " N , 7 ° 36 ′ 50.5" E