Jewish cemetery (Vacha)

The Jewish cemetery Vacha is located in the town of Vacha in the Wartburg district in Thuringia . It is registered as a protected architectural monument .

description

The Jewish cemetery, surrounded by a wooden fence, is located at the southeast exit of the village in the direction of Völkershausen , east of Völkershäuser Strasse (= Landesstrasse L 2601) on a small hill. On the approximately 5000 m² site there are still 64, for the most part heavily weathered, tombstones .

The photos from the Jewish cemetery show the situation on August 17, 2012:

The cemetery is located on a small hill at the southeast exit of Vacha.

history

There are only reliable indications of the existence of a Jewish cemetery in Vacha from the 18th century: The oldest surviving tombstone is from 1718 for Isaac, son of Jehuda Abraham; In 1732 the cemetery is mentioned for the first time in a document; In 1771 a dirt road at the "Judenkirchhof" was repaired. To enlarge the cemetery, the Jewish community bought an adjacent piece of land from the city in 1778. Since the cemetery was again too small around 1830, it was expanded to include an adjacent piece of meadow. Jewish families in Völkershausen and Heringen (Werra) , who also used the cemetery, participated in the financing . The last time the cemetery was enlarged was in 1882.

During the Nazi era , the cemetery became the property of the city. The last burial took place in 1934 (Meier Baumgardt, 1855–1934). Immediately after the end of the war , the cemetery was restored, and in the following years it was desecrated several times .