Jewish cemetery (Parchim)

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The town of Parchim in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had two Jewish cemeteries , both of which no longer exist.

The medieval cemetery

Parchim is one of those cities in Mecklenburg in which a medieval Jewish community can be proven. Proof of this are a number of tombstones , the oldest of which could be dated to 1304, the youngest to 1346. Apparently at that time the small church ceased to exist. The reason is believed to be the devastating plague epidemics of that time. A total of 36 tombstones were found that were used in the northern extension of the Marienkirche and the cross gate in the second half of the 15th century. Two more stones could be recovered during construction work in front of the cross gate in the 1920s. There - in the amount of today's property Flörkestr. 44 ( 53 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  N , 11 ° 50 ′ 0 ″  E ) - apparently the old cemetery was located.

The new cemetery

This cemetery was created after the resettlement of a Jewish community in the second half of the 18th century on the west bank of the Wockersee (Voigtsdorfer Weg 53 ° 26 ′ 10.3 ″  N , 11 ° 51 ′ 16.4 ″  E ) and later several times in total approx. 2,200 m² extended. The last burial took place in 1938. The cemetery was desecrated during the National Socialist era (1943). In 1947 the cemetery was redesigned into a memorial with preserved tombstones. In 1969, the Jewish state community gave the city of Parchim the area to set up a bathing establishment.

Memorial at the New Cemetery

memorial

The few remaining tombstones of the new Jewish cemetery were transferred to the new (municipal) cemetery after it was abandoned. A memorial was set up there in 1971. Seven gravestones are grouped around a memorial stone that rests on fragments of Jewish gravestones. The memorial stone bears the inscriptions: “In memory of the Jewish cemetery in Parchim which was destroyed by the fascists” and “In memory of the millions murdered and as a reminder for the living”. There are three other tombstones nearby, one of which comes from the medieval cemetery.

literature

  • Leopold Donath : History of the Jews in Mecklenburg from the oldest times (1266) to the present (1874). Leipzig 1874 (Reprint Vaduz 1984).
  • Michael Brocke, Eckehard Ruthenberg, Kai Uwe Schulenburg: Stone and Name. The Jewish cemeteries in East Germany (New Federal States / GDR and Berlin). Institute Church and Judaism, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-923095-19-8 .

Web links

Commons : Memorial for the former Jewish cemetery  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files