Jewish cemetery Obergrombach

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Jewish cemetery in Obergrombach
Clasped hands as a motif for married couples on a tombstone
Excerpt from the statutes of the funeral association from 1845
Gravestones of the cemetery

The Jewish cemetery in Obergrombach was established in 1632 as an association cemetery for several Jewish communities in the district of Obergrombach , which is now a district of Bruchsal . During the Nazi era , the cemetery was devastated and most of the tombstones were stolen. The cemetery is a protected cultural monument .

history

The Jewish cemetery in Obergrombach was laid out in 1632 during the Thirty Years' War as an association cemetery for Jews in the areas of the Speyer monastery on the right bank of the Rhine ; they had previously been buried in the Jewish cemetery in Worms . The unsafe ways to Worms due to the war, the fees to be paid and the tradition of burying the dead on the day of their death, if possible, were probably reasons for the new construction of the cemetery. First, a plot of 30 acres was acquired in the Obergrombach district on the edge of the Eichelberg forest about two kilometers east of the Michaelsberg . The purchase price was 735 guilders ; the exceptionally high amount presumably included the fees for authorizing the burial. In addition, an annual land rent of eight guilders was to be paid to the episcopal winery in Obergrombach. In 1755, a plot of land in the adjacent Bruchsal district was acquired for expansion. Another land acquisition in 1799 made it possible to connect the previously separate parts of the cemetery. Even today, there are boundary stones on the cemetery grounds of the district boundary between Bruchsal and Obergrombach from 1792.

In 1756, the use of the cemetery led to conflicts over rights of way . The city of Obergrombach demanded payment for the use of the path to the cemetery; when the Jews refused, the road was plowed over. In 1766 a common law of the Jews was recognized. In 1797 the path was relocated after it had been made unusable a second time. In 1756, burials were banned on Sundays and public holidays, as this would affect the festive mood of Christians.

As an association cemetery, the Obergrombach cemetery was at times maintained by 20 Jewish communities. The communities were not only located in the area of ​​the Speyer Monastery, but also in the neighboring Electoral Palatinate and the Margraviate of Baden . Burials of Jews from Bruchsal, Obergrombach (today in Bruchsal), Jöhlingen , Mingolsheim , Östringen , Bretten , Diedelsheim (today in Bretten), Heidelsheim (today in Bruchsal), Weingarten , Durlach , Graben , Grötzingen and others are documented Pforzheim . The cemetery was run by a cooperative, a member of which you became a member when you were accepted into a community or when you started a family. The cooperative members were entitled to a burial site for themselves and their immediate family members. The cemetery was administered by a "charity" (Gemiluth Hesed).

In the 18th and 19th centuries, several Jewish communities set up their own cemeteries, for example Mingolsheim in 1878 and Bruchsal in 1893. The Obergrombach cemetery was ultimately only used as a burial place for Jews in Obergrombach and Untergrombach. In the middle of the 19th century, the proportion of Jews in the rural communities reached its highest level; afterwards it sank due to the emigration, especially to the USA and the emigration of Jews to the cities, where better career opportunities were offered. The Jewish community of Obergrombach was dissolved in 1888, the Jews living there joined the community of Untergrombach; the Obergrombach synagogue was converted into a Protestant chapel.

Gravestones in 1910 (Photographer: Wilhelm Kratt)

For Siegfried Grzymisch , Bruchsal district rabbi and last chairman of the cemetery commission, in 1931 the cemetery, which had existed for several centuries, "convincingly demonstrated to the non-Jew that the Jew here is to be regarded as a native and not as a foreigner, who has less rights." For Grzymisch was

“[T] he location of this 'eternal house' of the dead […] is a wonderful one. It lies stretched out at the height of the Eichelberg, but on one level, on the edge of the forest, embedded in its bay as in a lap. The mysterious shadows of the forest fall into the 'good place', but on the other side the light of the open corridor floods over it. How secluded from the world and yet how rich in life! "

In 1933, the year power was transferred to the National Socialists , there lived in Untergrombach 32 and in Obergrombach two people of Jewish faith. Jews from both places were initially deported to southern France in the Wagner-Bürckel campaign in October 1940 ; the majority of them were later murdered in the extermination camps in the east. The Obergrombach cemetery was used for burials until 1937. It was probably devastated during the pogroms in November 1938 : 1,800 of the 2,300 gravestones were knocked over and later, probably in spring 1939, removed from the cemetery. In addition, the morgue ( Tahara House ), built in 1833 instead of a previous building, was destroyed. In 1941 the cemetery was owned by the Reich Association of Jews in Germany . The Bruchsal District Office ordered the cemetery to be closed in September 1941 and designated the municipalities as possible buyers of the site. The cemetery was not sold until the end of the war.

After the liberation , the district administrator of Bruchsal ordered the restoration of the cemetery in July 1945:

“The Jewish cemetery in Obergrombach must now be returned to its previous condition immediately; in particular, the tombstones must be provided and properly placed on the corresponding grave. The inhabitants of Obergrombach are to be consulted for this. First and foremost, active National Socialists will be entrusted with the work, but they must be under reliable supervision so that no confusion regarding. of the tombstones. This work must be tackled immediately despite any harvesting work and must be carried out in the shortest possible time and cleanly. "

In 1946 , around 70 tombstones were recovered in the nearby Obergrombacher Hohl, a ravine , which were installed there as gutters. According to the responsible official at the Bruchsal city administration, even more tombstones would have to be recovered if the overgrowth had been removed. In the early 1950s, a farmer from Obergrombach looked after the cemetery on behalf of and on account of the New York-based Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO). Later the city of Obergrombach took over, from 1961 the city of Bruchsal. In November 1982 a memorial stone was erected to commemorate the persecution of the Jews by the National Socialists with the inscription “I cry night and day, never ending. (Jeremiah) ”revealed. Occasionally the cemetery continued to be used for funerals, for example in 1964 and 1972 and most recently in the winter of 2002/03.

Field of stelae with the gravestones recovered after 1998

At the beginning of 1989 the Bruchsal city administration was again informed of gravestones in the Obergrombacher Hohl. From 1992 a total of 850 gravestones were recovered from the Hohl and brought back to the cemetery. 123 tombstones were restored and integrated into a memorial that was inaugurated in May 1995. In 1998, another 788 gravestones related to water drainage were discovered on Unteröwisheimer Weg, northeast of Bruchsal. These stones were also recovered until 2004; 87 of them have been restored and attached to steles placed on an extension of the cemetery to the west. Smaller fragments of tombstones were buried in the cemetery grounds; larger fragments laid out on the cemetery grounds. Site plans for assigning the tombstone fragments to the graves were not available. The chosen solution did not correspond to the ideas of the Upper Council of the Israelites in Baden : The Upper Council had advocated building an enclosure wall around the cemetery instead of the fence, to which all the gravestones recovered should be attached.

Although Jewish cemeteries are usually not well cared for in terms of gardening, the Obergrombach cemetery seems to have been mowed regularly for centuries , so that in the 19th century it had developed into one of the most species-rich dry grasslands in the area. The first find reports by naturalists who regularly visited the cemetery date from the 1840s. Since the 1930s at the latest, the cemetery has not been taken care of, so that in the following 50 years a beech forest was created instead of the dry grass. The only occurrences of the burnt orchid and the spider ragweed in the region are documented; as recently as the 1950s, five orchid species were counted.

At the present time the cemetery covers an area of ​​about 140 ares with a length of about 270 meters and a width of up to 70 meters. The graves face east. In the south there are agriculturally used areas; in the north there is a forest area. In the east, which is training area of the Bundeswehr in Bruchsal with a shooting range . The cemetery is a listed building; The cemetery is supported by the State Monuments Office and the city of Bruchsal. The chief rabbi of the Jewish community in Karlsruhe is responsible for religious matters.

Graves

Are buried in the cemetery

  • The cattle dealer Joseph Zwi Carlebach (1802–1881), who, through his son Salomon Carlebach, became the progenitor of a large German and later world-famous rabbi family

literature

  • Josef Lindenfelser: Jewish cemetery in Obergrombach. (= Contributions to local history , volume 1) Heimatverein Untergrombach, Bruchsal 1998.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the story see
  2. ^ Siegfried Grzymisch : The Israelite Association Cemetery near Obergrombach. In: Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, Landesverband Baden (Hrsg.): CV calendar. , P. 5 quoted in Stude, Geschichte , p. 37.
  3. ↑ Grzymisch, Verbandsfriedhof , p. 6f, quoted in Stude, Geschichte , p. 46.
  4. ^ Order of the district administrator of Bruchsal of July 31, 1945, quoted in Jürgen Stude: Geschichte , p. 374.
  5. ^ Stude, Geschichte , p. 374.
  6. ↑ Udo Theobald: Jewish cemeteries in the district. Resting place for the Jews in the principality. In: Badische Latest Nachrichten 79/1985 (April 3, 1985), p. 24.
  7. ↑ See Jer 14,17  EU . Date of the inauguration of the monument at Lindenfelser, Judenfriedhof p. 1 and Jewish cemetery Obergrombach at www.alemannia-judaica.de. Deviating from this, the year 1972 is mentioned in the information sheet with a map at www.alemannia-judaica.de
  8. ^ Burial in winter 2002/03 see Graves for Eternity In: Willi - the city magazine for the Kraichgau. 11/2004.
  9. ↑ Were stones recovered? Misappropriation is "desecration". In: Bruchsaler Rundschau from February 3, 1989
  10. ↑ Overview of all projects for the documentation of Jewish grave inscriptions in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. at the University of Heidelberg.
  11. ^ Martina Strehlen: Registration of Jewish cemeteries in Baden-Württemberg. Second project report (pdf) In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Wuerttemberg: News sheet of the preservation of monuments. ISSN  0342-0027 issue 1/2002 (31), pp. 33-39.
  12. ↑ Riki Strassler: [report on the restoration of the Jewish cemetery in Bruchsal / Obergrombach.] In: Bulletin of the Upper Council of the Israelites bathing. No. 29, September 2005, p. 5.
  13. ↑ Michael Hassler: A walk through the diversity of the Michaelsberg and its surroundings. In: Michael Hassler (ed.): The Michaelsberg. Natural history and history of Untergrombach's local mountain. Verlag Regionalkultur, Ubstadt-Weiher 1998, ISBN 3-929366-78-9 , pp. 31–54, here p. 54.
  14. ↑ Information sheet of the Heimatverein Untergrombach . In the case of www.alemannia-judaica.de , the area stated is just under 130 ares.

Coordinates: 49 ° 5 ′ 27.2 "  N , 8 ° 35 ′ 10.8"  E