Elmshorn Jewish cemetery
The Jewish cemetery in Elmshorn is on Feldstrasse. Funerals no longer take place there. The fenced-in area has a size of 1,740 m² and is not open to the public. At the entrance to Feldstrasse there is a small Tahara house from 1906. The oldest gravestones are from the early 18th century. The cemetery was assigned to the Jewish community in Hamburg from 1960 to 2007 ; since then he has been looked after by the Elmshorn Jewish Community, which was re-established in 2003.
history
In the second half of the 17th century Elmshorn belonged to the County of Rantzau , which had the right to accept Jews. The year 1685 is the founding year of the Jewish community in Elmshorn. At that time, the Jew Berend Levi in Elmshorn was issued the first surviving letter of protection from Count Detlev zu Rantzau . In it he was given permission to live in Elmshorn, to do business and to borrow money. In addition, the letter of protection granted the right to freely practice religion and the opportunity to acquire a burial place for Jews who died in Elmshorn.
Initially, the site was only leased for the cemetery, and it was not until 1828 that the Jewish community acquired the property. It is certain from the 1870s that a Tahara house already existed, but it soon turned out to be dilapidated. In 1906 the Jewish community built the Tahara House, which still exists today.
Under National Socialism , several efforts were made to dissolve the Jewish cemetery and to bury the Jews further outside the city. The resistance of the clergy and the few remaining members of the Jewish community was considerable, because the undisturbed rest of the dead is of elementary importance in the Jewish religion .
In addition, there were legal provisions in the way that a cemetery could only be leveled if no funerals had taken place for 40 years. The cemetery survived the National Socialist period of rule.
Changing owners:
- from 1943 "Reich Association of Jews in Germany" - after the dissolution of the Jewish community in Elmshorn
- from 1944 Pinneberg district
- from 1953 Jewish Corporation for Germany Limited
- from 1960 Jewish community in Hamburg
- from 2007 Elmshorn Jewish Community
Graves
The Elmshorn cemetery belongs to an Ashkenazi community and therefore has upright gravestones. The stones in Sephardic communities are lying flat ( Jewish cemetery Glückstadt ). The oldest gravestones from the early 18th century do not have any inscriptions, from around 1835 the stones bear mixed inscriptions in addition to Hebrew - German on one side and Hebrew on the other. The newer stones only show German inscriptions.
The symbols are next to the Star of David
- Blessing priest hands (dead from the clan of priests )
- Jug and bowl (descendants of the Levi tribe ).
literature
- Harald Kirschninck: The history of the Jews in Elmshorn. 1685-1918. Volume 1, 2nd expanded edition, Norderstedt 2017.
- Harald Kirschninck: The history of the Jews in Elmshorn. 1918-1945. Volume 2, 2nd expanded edition, Norderstedt 2017.
- Kirschninck, Harald: Beth ha Chajim. House of Eternal Life. A visit to the Jewish cemetery in Elmshorn. Norderstedt 2019.
- Kirschninck, Harald: The train of no return. - Deportation of Jewish citizens from Elmshorn. Norderstedt 2017.
- Kirschninck, Harald: Jews in Elmshorn, Part 1: Discrimination. Persecution. Destruction, Elmshorn 1996. (Contributions to the history of Elmshorn, Volume 9).
- Kirschninck, Harald: Jews in Elmshorn, Part 2: Isolation. Assimilation. Emancipation. Elmshorn 1999. (Contributions to the history of Elmshorn, Volume 12).
- Kirschninck, Harald: What can the graves tell us? Biographies and stories behind the tombstones of the Jewish cemetery in Elmshorn. Volume 1. Norderstedt 2019.
- Kirschninck, Harald: What can the graves tell us? Biographies and stories behind the tombstones of the Jewish cemetery in Elmshorn. Volume 2. Norderstedt 2019.
- Kirschninck, Harald: What can the graves tell us? Biographies and stories behind the tombstones of the Jewish cemetery in Elmshorn. Volume 3. Norderstedt 2019.
- Kirschninck, Harald: On the history of the Jewish community Elmshorn until 1869. in: Stadt Elmshorn (Hrsg.): Contributions to the history of Elmshorn. Volume 1. Elmshorn 1987.
- Kirschninck, Harald: On the history of the Jewish community in Elmshorn. Part II. From emancipation to destruction. in: Stadt Elmshorn (Ed.): Contributions to the history of Elmshorn. Volume 2. Elmshorn 1988.
- Kirschninck, Harald: Beth ha Chajim - On the history of the Jewish cemetery in Elmshorn. in: Stadt Elmshorn (Ed.): Contributions to the history of Elmshorn. Volume 3. Elmshorn 1989
- Kirschninck, Harald: "Anyone who buys from a Jew is a traitor!". The fall of the Jewish community in Elmshorn. In: Gerhard Paul / Miriam Carlesbach (eds.): Menorah and swastika. On the history of the Jews in and from Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck and Altona 1918-1998. Neumünster 1998. pp. 283-296.
- Kirschninck, Harald: The Jews in Elmshorn during the Third Reich. In: Bringmann / Diercks: Freedom lives. Anti-fascist resistance and Nazi terror in Elmshorn and the surrounding area 1933–1945. 702 years in prison for anti-fascists. Frankfurt 1983.
- Kirschninck, Harald: The Jews in Elmshorn during the Third Reich. in: Heimatverband für die Kreis Pinneberg eV (Hrsg.): Yearbook for the district Pinneberg 1984. Pinneberg 1983.
- Kirschninck, Harald: The Jewish community Elmshorn. in: Lorenzen-Schmidt (Ed.): Bei uns .... 1933 - 1945. A brochure for the exhibition of the same name. Engelbrechtsche Wildnis 1983. Schleswig-Holsteinischer Heimatbund (Ed.):
- Kirschninck, Harald: Beth ha Chajim - The house of eternal life. The history of the Jewish cemetery in Elmshorn. In: Schleswig-Holstein. Culture. History. Nature. Special print for Schleswig-Holstein Day 1998. Husum 1998. P. 68 f.
- Kirschninck, Harald: Branch in Itzehoe. In: Ritter / Fischer (Hrsg.): Jüdische Kultur. Steinburger Jahrbuch 2002. Volume 46 Itzehoe 2001. pp. 114-130.
- Kirschninck, Harald: Elmshorn. On the history of the cemetery. In: www.alemannia-judaica.de/schleswig_holstein_friedhoefe.htm
- Kirschninck, Harald: Where did you go? Where Elmshorn Jews were deported by the National Socialists. In: Working group “Stumbling blocks for Elmshorn”. Elmshorn 2008.
- Kirschninck, Harald: Albert Hirsch. In: Working group “Stumbling blocks for Elmshorn”. Elmshorn 2008.
- Kirschninck, Harald: Karl Löwenstein. John Lowenstein. Selma Levi, b. Lion's Arch. In: Working group “Stumbling blocks for Elmshorn”. Elmshorn 2008.
- Uwe Barghaan: CD-ROM "Elmshorn and Klein Nordende", Elmshorn 2001.
Web links
- State Association of the Jewish Communities of Schleswig-Holstein Kdö.R.
- Elmshorn Jewish cemeteries near Alemannia Judaica
- Elmshorn. The Jewish cemetery is now a memorial. The state office declared the facility as one of the oldest and most beautiful of its kind in Schleswig-Holstein as particularly worth preserving on January 6, 2015 in the Elmshorner Nachrichten
Coordinates: 53 ° 45 ′ 27.5 ″ N , 9 ° 39 ′ 15.6 ″ E