Jewish cemetery (Coppenbrügge)

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The cemetery grounds (2016) with information board and memorial stone from 1962

The Jewish cemetery in Coppenbrügge is a former Jewish burial site in the Hameln-Pyrmont district in Lower Saxony .

Location and description

The cemetery is located on Bundesstraße 1 on the edge of the old town between the park area of ​​the Coppenbrügge Castle and a school area. The original size of the cemetery was almost 1500 m². Today the cemetery, which was reduced in size in connection with the construction of schools and roads, covers around 1000 m². There are no more tombstones in the cemetery since they were removed in 1938. The two old goal posts and stone slabs have been put up again on earlier evidence. In addition, there is a memorial stone erected in 1962 by the Lower Saxony State Association of Jewish Communities .

history

Since 1787 the Jewish community of Coppenbrügge buried its dead from the town, as well as from Brünnighausen and Hohnsen, in the cemetery, which was about one acre in size, on the road from Hameln to Hildesheim . The property, which was originally on domain land, was acquired by the Jewish community in 1836. In 1842, they erected two stone gateposts with the inscription Bet Hachaim (House of the Living) on ​​them, which have been preserved to this day (2016).

The Jewish community of Coppenbrügge was important in the 18th and 19th centuries. At times it belonged to more than ten families with 80 to 100 people. In 1933 there were only three Jewish families left in the village. In 1936 there were 64 tombstones in the cemetery. The last burial took place in 1937.

time of the nationalsocialism

In 1935, the mayor of Coppenbrügge asked Helmut Lambert , the district administrator of the Hameln-Pyrmont district , to close the cemetery. He justified this with the fact that the resting place lies within the closed town and borders on the settlement area. The district joined the request and called over the Hanover district president, the cemetery "as soon as possible" to remove, as it on the national highway , which is now B 1 , lie. Adolf Hitler used this road every time he traveled from the annual Reichserntedankfest on Bückeberg to Goslar , where the Reichsbauerntag took place.

The district president initially refused to close it for traffic police reasons. In 1937, after repeated requests from the district administrator, in 1937 he ordered the cemetery to be closed. The facility was to remain in place until the end of the rest period , which was usually 30 years after the last burial.

After the cemetery was closed, in January 1938 a contract was signed between the Coppenbrügge community and the Jewish community in Hameln on future funerals. In future, these should take place at the Jewish cemetery in Hameln . The community there wanted to keep the cemetery complex in Coppenbrügge in a worthy condition at its own expense. In May 1938 the mayor of Coppenbrügger had leveled the cemetery and had the tombstones removed. They were used as building material in road construction and in the Christian cemetery. The former Jewish cemetery was converted into a meadow and leased for grass use. Four grave sites were preserved because their rest periods had not yet expired. In October 1938 the community of Coppenbrügge wanted to buy the cemetery property from the last Jewish citizen in the village and offered him 450  Reichsmarks . Later estimates put the property value at around 2000 Reichsmarks. A contract was not concluded because the Jewish citizen was arrested during the November pogrom of November 9, 1938 and temporarily transported to the Buchenwald concentration camp . During the pogrom, SA members from Coppenbrügge destroyed the last four gravestones in the cemetery. In 1941 there were sales negotiations between the Coppenbrügge community and the Reich Association of Jews in Germany . In 1942 the mayor of Coppenbrügger informed the Reich Association that he wanted to personally purchase the cemetery grounds. After a corresponding purchase agreement from 1943, the property became his private property.

post war period

Entrance gate and behind it the two original goal posts from 1842

In 1951, the Jewish Trust Corporation asked the private owner to restore the former cemetery property. The reparation office at the Hanover Regional Court rejected the claim due to the insignificance of the asset under 1000 DM . In 1962, the state of Lower Saxony had the cemetery restored. For this purpose, the owners had leased the property to the municipality of Coppenbrügge. The state association of the Jewish communities of Lower Saxony put a memorial stone on the site in 1962. In 1977 the municipality of Coppenbrügge came into possession of the cemetery. After a public discussion that began in 1995 about earlier Jewish life in Coppenbrügge, the cemetery was returned to Jewish hands on November 9, 1998 after 60 years. In connection with this, an information board was set up and the two gate posts of the cemetery, erected in 1842, returned to the place.

literature

  • Bernhard Gelderblom : The elimination of the Jewish cemeteries in the small town of Bad Münder (Springe district) and in the Coppenbrügge district (Hameln-Pyrmont district) - as examples of the interplay of official arbitrariness and personal greed. In: Working Group History of the Jews in the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen (ed.): Jews in Lower Saxony 1938–1945. Research approaches and research desiderata. Conference in Hanover 24. – 25. March 2011. Hanover 2011, pp. 64–66.

Web links

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

Coordinates: 52 ° 7 '4.4 "  N , 9 ° 32" 45.4 "  E