Jewish cemetery (Kempten)

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The Jewish cemetery in Kempten

The Jewish cemetery in the independent city of Kempten in the Allgäu is a small burial site for members of the Jewish religion . The last burial took place in 2008 with a special permit, the site has actually been closed for further burials since 1981. It was the cemetery of the Kempten Jewish community .

history

The 1,550 square meter Jewish cemetery was laid out in the 1870s (before 1876) by the Jewish branch community of Kempten and is located to the west of the Catholic cemetery . To ensure that the Jewish cemetery would not be damaged by the Nazis, a hedge was created around the small area on Mayor Otto Merkt's initiative and the cemetery was taken over by the city on May 20, 1939. In one corner of the cemetery there is a memorial stone for non-Jewish forced laborers and prisoners of war who were buried here on the orders of the Gestapo during the Second World War.

In 1960 a memorial stone with the names of 16 Kempten citizens of Jewish denomination murdered during the Nazi era was erected within the cemetery, which was enclosed by a thuja hedge and wire fence :

Reduction Citizen jew Denomination Reduction Citizen jew Denomination Reduction Citizen jew Denomination
Oskar and Hedwig Hauser Mathilde Kohn Hedwig Kohn
Julius Kohn Edith Landauer Else Liebenthal
Gertrud Liebenthal Bella shamrock Martha shamrock
Rosa Loew Elvira stone Sigmund Ullmann
Louis Viktor Samuel Walter Julie Walter

In 1954, the first Jewish burial after the Second World War was followed by numerous interested parties. A year later, the National Association of Israelites took over the cemetery from the city. The last burials for the time being took place in the cemetery in 1970 and 1981. The cemetery was then closed in 1981. In 2008, a funeral took place with a special permit. At this funeral Else "Esther" Dobias, who died in Kempten at the age of 97, was buried near her sister Adele, as she had wished. Two employees of a Jewish funeral home dug the grave by hand because the cemetery was so narrow that it was impossible to use an excavator. The funeral was carried out by Rabbi Henry Brandt .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c alemannia-judaica.de: Kempten Jewish Cemetery (accessed April 7, 2012)

literature

  • Ralf Lienert: The history of the Jews in Kempten. Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten 1998.

Web links

Commons : Jewish cemetery  - collection of images

Coordinates: 47 ° 44 ′ 6.3 ″  N , 10 ° 18 ′ 37.9 ″  E