Jewish cemetery (Westhoffen)

Jewish cemetery in Westhoffen

Police officers in the cemetery after his desecration on December 4, 2019

The Jewish cemetery in Westhoffen , a French commune in the Bas-Rhin department of the Grand Est region , was laid out in the 19th century. It is first handed down on a land register plan from 1832. The Jewish cemetery is on Rue Westerend.

The oldest surviving tombstones date from 1559. With Isaïe Schwartz (1876–1952) and Ernest Guggenheim (1916–1977), two chief rabbis are buried there. During the occupation by Nazi Germany, 25 Westhofen Jews were killed in the death camps. The residents of Westhofen meanwhile desecrated the cemetery. They smashed many of the oldest gravestones and used them for road construction, others served the Germans as anti-tank barriers.

On December 3, 2019, the cemetery was desecrated. Numerous gravestones were smeared with swastikas. The graffiti also shows that the acts, together with the desecrations of Jewish cemeteries in Quatzenheim, Reutenbourg , Rohr and Schaffhouse-près-Seltz, are connected to the European White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (EWK, KKK). The black "14", which is emblazoned on a grave stone at the cemetery entrance, is the "Fourteen Words", a dogma of white neo-Nazis and racists: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children" ( We need the existence of our people and a future for the white children ). The graves of the family of the former Prime Minister Michel Debre were also desecrated .

literature

• Klaus-Dieter Alicke: Lexicon of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area. Volume 3: Ochtrup - Zwittau. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-08079-6 ( online version ).

Web links

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

• Westhoffen Jewish cemetery near Alemannia Judaica (with many photos)
• Westhoffen Jewish Cemetery Description at the French Ministry of Culture (French text)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Déjà-vu in Alsace , Jüdische Allgemeine, December 15, 2019. Accessed December 26, 2019.

Coordinates: 48 ° 36 ′ 16.3 "  N , 7 ° 26 ′ 11.4"  E