Jewish cemetery (alder)

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Information board and entrance to the Jewish cemetery in Erle

The Jewish cemetery Erle is located in Erle, part of the Raesfeld community in the Borken district ( North Rhine-Westphalia ).

The 237 m² cemetery is located on the corner of Schermbecker Straße and Westerholten, approx. 700 m south of St. Silvester Erle, the center of the village.

From 1872 to 1933, only the Cahn family buried their dead in this cemetery. Gravestones are no longer preserved, a plaque commemorates the Cahn family.

As was customary at the time, she acquired the triangular property in 1842, which was a bit remote from the village center. From 1843 to 1933, eleven members of the Cahn family were buried here. During the Nazi era, this small cemetery was left alone, it was neither desecrated nor destroyed.

In 1938 the property came into private ownership and was purchased by the then municipality of Erle in 1963. Since then the cemetery has been looked after by employees of the community (from 1975 community Raesfeld ). Today you can find a simple, black marble grave slab under the tall oak trees. It is arranged vertically on a small pedestal and on it is carved the Star of David and the text “Resting place of the Cahn family”. To the left and right of this grave monument are two, in keeping with Jewish tradition, simple, unmarked and undated graves. It is not known who exactly from the Cahn family is buried in it.

As far as is known, Jewish village life in Erle was limited to that of the Cahn family. The relatively few Jewish families lived in Westphalia and the Münsterland , in contrast to the Rhineland , was due, among other things, to the Europe-wide persecution of Jews from 1348-1352 in connection with the plague and the suppression of Anabaptism in 1535 and the subsequent anti-Semitic laws. A few Jews stayed here underground and went under the protection of a few local noble houses.

In 1824 the Jewish couple Moises Herz and Sophia Cohen settled in Erle. The family later took the surname Cahn, a variant of the Cohen family name. The Erler local history researcher Heinrich Lammersmann reported from the memories of his grandfather that a certain Herz Cahn was killed in 1872 in Erle during fire fighting and rescue work in the fire of the Wolberg, Heidermann and Böckenhoff houses. It is very likely that this is the son of Moises and Sophia Cahn. The grandson, Levi Cahn and his wife Caroline lived in the middle of the village around 1930. Despite the devastating bomb attack on the village during World War II, the house has been preserved and still stands today. It is the house behind the Funke bakery that is being concealed by the new building of the old lottery acceptance point.

Levi and Caroline Cahn had two daughters together, Else (born 1904) and Erna. The oldest daughter, Adele, came from her first marriage. Furthermore, Emma and Jettchen Cahn, the two unmarried sisters in their youth in Erle, lived with their family. The Cahn family ran a small textile and haberdashery store, which also sold sweets, and were completely normal and firmly integrated in village life. In spite of all this, the time of National Socialism was a time of danger and hiding for the Cahn family, also in Erle.

In 1921 Adele married and then moved away from Erle. She survived National Socialism hidden on the Lower Rhine (region) . In 1933 the family patriarch Levi Cahn died. The daughter Erna married and emigrated with her husband to South Africa . In the same year Else Cahn married Hugo Schönbach and moved in with him in the neighboring village of Schermbeck. She took care of her mother, who was meanwhile in need of care. In 1940 the family then sold their house in Erle. Else and Hugo had their child Mirijam shortly afterwards. The small family was deported to Riga on December 11, 1941, and there is no trace of them. Most likely, Else, Hugo and little Mirijam were murdered there or in a concentration camp . Levi Cahn's two unmarried sisters, Emma and Jettchen, moved to Essen-Borbeck and were first deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp on January 21, 1942 and then to Treblinka concentration camp on September 21, 1942 , where they were murdered.

Representing the Cahn family, a street in Erle has been named after Else Cahn, the Else-Cahn-Weg - a modest sign that the Cahn family was once among the learners, but also a permanent memorial against oblivion.

Stumbling blocks in memory of Emma and Jettchen Cahn from alder

With his nationwide project Stolpersteine , the Cologne sculptor Gunter Demnig commemorates Jewish citizens who were abducted from their homes and murdered during the Nazi era. Such stumbling blocks in front of their last residence in Essen-Borbeck are reminiscent of the two Erler Emma and Jettchen Cahn.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diethard Aschoff: On the older history of the Jews in der Herrlichkeit Lembeck, Heimatkalender der Herrlichkeit Lembeck, 1984, pp. 141 ff.
  2. ↑ Heinrich Lammersmann: Die Kannune, Heimatkalender der Herrlichkeit Lembeck, 1929, p. 73 ff.
  3. ↑ Dr. Elisabeth Schwane: Memories of Else Cahn, Heimatkalender der Herrlichkeit Lembeck, 2000, p. 123 ff.
  4. ↑ Information board of the Erler Heimatverein e. V. in front of the entrance to the Jewish cemetery in Erle.

literature

  • Hartmut Stratmann, Günter Birkmann: Jewish cemeteries in Westphalia and Lippe. dkv, the small publishing house, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-924166-15-3 .

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 26.6 "  N , 6 ° 51 ′ 58.1"  E