Busenberg Jewish cemetery

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Jewish cemetery in Busenberg
Moorish style tombstone
Gravestones in the Busenberg cemetery, in the background the Drachenfels ruins.

The Busenberg Jewish cemetery was established in 1824 as an association cemetery for four Jewish communities in Wasgau , which is formed by the southern part of the Palatinate Forest and the northern part of the Vosges . At present the cemetery houses 286 graves on an area of ​​25.8 ares . The cemetery, which has been devastated several times, has been a cultural monument worthy of protection since 1985 .

history

The Busenberger Friedhof was created in 1824 as an association cemetery for the Jewish communities of Busenberg , Dahn , Erlenbach and Vorderweidenthal . That year there were 127 Jews in Busenberg, 93 in Dahn, 47 in Erlenbach and 78 in Vorderweidenthal . It is not known for certain where the dead of the Jews in Wasgau were buried in front of the cemetery; a burial in the Jewish cemetery in Annweiler is very likely . The cemetery property was previously used as a clay pit; it is located on today's federal highway 427 , about 600 meters after the end of the village from Busenberg in the direction of Lauterschwan, directly opposite the junction of the path to Drachenfels Castle .

The area of ​​the cemetery was initially just under 19 acres; before 1887 the cemetery was expanded to the west to a total of 25.8 acres. Because of the maintenance of the access road to the cemetery, differences arose between the Busenberg municipal council and the Jewish communities between 1859 and 1862. The local council called for the cemetery to be closed and the Jews to be buried in part of the Christian cemetery instead. This was rejected by both the Jewish communities and the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior.

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933, the cemetery was the target of a cemetery desecration : In September and October 1938 114 gravestones were knocked over; at least a third of the tombstones were completely destroyed. According to a letter from the Zweibrücken public prosecutor's office dated November 1938, five primary school students who were under criminal responsibility were identified as the perpetrators . Since tombstones weighing tons were knocked over, other people must have been involved in the destruction of the cemetery. According to the Mayor of Busenberg in 1947, members of the Reich Labor Camp in neighboring Bruchweiler were responsible for the desecration of the cemetery.

After the liberation the cemetery was overgrown and overgrown with bushes; the tombstones were overturned and partially destroyed. In the late autumn of 1945, the first cleaning and renovation work was carried out. In 1955 the western, newer part of the cemetery was repaired; the eastern, older part remained overgrown. In 1963, almost all of the gravestones in the old part were overturned on the ground. In 1972, in accordance with an agreement between the Busenberg municipal administration and the Jewish Community of the Rhine Palatinate, the entire cemetery was significantly changed: Unnecessary borders and plinths were removed, the gravestones made stable, the previously existing terrain between the old and new cemetery sections leveled and a lawn created. After the last burial during the Nazi era in 1939, three more burials took place between 1958 and 1979.

Since the end of the war, the cemetery has been the target of cemetery desecrations in the spring of 1978, November 1994 and May 1997. During the two desecrations in the 1990s, a considerable number of gravestones were damaged, knocked over or smeared with National Socialist slogans. In December 1997 the police identified seven suspects, six of whom belonged to the right-wing extremist Aktion Sauberes Deutschland . One of the people identified was sentenced in August 1998 to a two-year suspended sentence. The fact that the perpetrator had meanwhile turned away from the right-wing extremist scene was taken into account to mitigate the penalty. Another perpetrator was sentenced to two years in prison in 1999, which was suspended in July 2003 after the lead witness withdrew his testimony. Most of the destruction in the cemetery was removed by volunteer citizens from Busenberg.

literature

  • Otmar Weber: "Like a white lily in its first blossom ..." The Busenberg Jewish cemetery. Verlag Geiger-Druck, Dahn 1998, ISBN 3-00-003507-9 .
  • Otmar Weber: Judaism in Wasgau. Dahn 2006.

Web links

Commons : Jüdischer Friedhof Busenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Numbers in Weber, Lilie , p. 96.
  2. ^ Weber, Lilie , p. 95.
  3. ^ Weber, Lilie , p. 270ff.
  4. ^ Weber, Lilie , p. 324ff.
  5. Ulrich Kosub-Kirchner: Right-wing extremism in the West Palatinate. (pdf, 2.2 MB) p. 35.

Coordinates: 49 ° 7 ′ 34 "  N , 7 ° 50 ′ 20"  E