Słubice Jewish Cemetery

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Coordinates: 52 ° 20 ′ 22.6 ″  N , 14 ° 35 ′ 11 ″  E

Map: Poland
marker
Słubice Jewish Cemetery
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Poland
In 2004, the new graves of Rabbis Zacharja Mendel von Podheiz, Josef Teomim and Jehuda Lejb Margaliot were erected
Site plan from 2018
View from Szosa Rzepińska to the north; on the left the fenced-in cemetery, on the right the Szosa Rzepińska

The Jewish cemetery in Słubice is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Europe. It was created outside the German city of Frankfurt (Oder) and is now on the territory of the Polish city of Słubice .

location

Jewish cemeteries are laid out outside the city according to the rules of the Talmud. In Frankfurt (Oder), a plot of land east of the Oder was chosen. The main part of the city was on a valley sand island on the west bank of the Oder. The areas east of the Oder could only be reached via the river bridge and were outside the city fortifications. The cemetery is four kilometers from the bridge.

The Jewish cemetery is now in the south-east of Słubice, behind the junction of the Szosa Rzepińska ( Voivodship Street No. 137; before 1945 German: Reppener Chaussee) leading to Rzepin (German: Reppen ) from the to Krosno Odrzańskie (before 1945 German: Crossen an the Oder) leading Transportowa ( state road No. 29; before 1945 German: Crossener Chaussee). It is bordered in the north and northeast by the Szosa Rzepińska and in the southwest and south by the Transportowa. In the southeast the cemetery borders on an industrial park.

The name Judenberg became established for the elevation on which the Jewish cemetery was laid out . This designation was transferred to the surrounding elevations, which were known as the Judenberge until 1945 . The Frankfurt (Oder) -Dammvorstadt municipal cemetery (now the Słubice municipal cemetery) was also laid out in the Jewish Mountains. The Kleist Tower was built in 1891 on the highest elevation of the Judenberge (60 meters), from which one could overlook the battlefield of the battle of Kunersdorf . The tower was named after Ewald Christian von Kleist, who was fatally wounded during the battle . The battle took place on August 12, 1759 east of the Judenberge in the open field and on the Laudonsberg. The Laudonsberge were named after Gideon Ernst von Laudon, who, as Commander in Chief , had defeated Frederick the Great and his Prussian troops. On the evening of August 12, 1759, after the lost battle, Friedrich II wrote in a message intended as a farewell letter to Karl Wilhelm von Finckenstein :

"J'ai attaqué ce matin à 11 hours l'ennemi. Nous les avons poussés jusqu'au cimetière des juifs auprès de Francfort. Toutes mes troupes ont donné et ont fait des prodiges, mais ce cimetière nous a fait perdre un prodigieux monde. »

“I attacked the enemy at 11 o'clock this morning. We pushed them to the Jewish cemetery near Frankfurt. All of my troops have worked miracles, but this cemetery has cost us tremendous numbers. "

Some gravestones were damaged by gunshots from the battle of Kunersdorf.

The Jewish cemetery for Frankfurt (Oder) has been outside the city limits since its creation and was part of the Kunersdorf district . It was not until Kunersdorf was incorporated into Frankfurt (Oder) in 1942 that the cemetery was on the city's territory.

history

Emergence

For Frankfurt (Oder), which was granted city charter in 1253, Jewish life can be proven as early as 1294. According to a document dated April 30, 1294, the council settled a dispute between the ten Jews Mosko, his brother-in-law Jakob, Jakob ben Johannes von Hohenwalde, Samson, Glomeke, David, Jakob ben Hugo, Joseph, Samuel and Habram and the butcher's trade over the procedure at slaughter.

“Nos Consules civitatis Frankvordensis recognoscimus universis presentem literam inspecturis, quod quedam dissensio super opus carnificum ex una parte et inter Judeos ex alia parte iam aliquo tempore fuit ventilata, que ad unionem concordie in hunc modum est redacta, quod X videlicet scriptis, scilicet Mosco, Jacobus suus sororius, Jacobus apud Johannem de hoghenwalde, Zamson, Glomeke, Davit, Jacobus apud hughonem, Josep, Samel, Habram, opus carneficum debent sub hac etiam forma exercere, quod unusquisque duo capita die dominica mactare debet, feria fnum, et similiter dua capita feria quinta. Si vero aliquis Judeorum hanc ordinationem infringere presumpserit, sentencie quam Consules dictaverint debet subiacere. Testes huius rei sunt hii, videlicet Lipholdus, Henricus zulencic, Henneke gallicus, petrus capman, Thidericus marwiz, Paulus, Conradus prezel, Thi. Burz, Thi. Faber, Tho. penesticus, Holtscher, Joh. de Albea. In cuius rei testimonium eisdem dedimus presentem literam nostre civitatis sigillo roboratam. Date in frankenvord, in vigilia beatorum apostolorum Phy. et jacobi. Anno Domini M °. CC. Non. IIII. "

The oldest evidence of the Jewish cemetery dates from 1399. On January 20, 1399, the city of Frankfurt (Oder) was approved by the Margrave Jobst to purchase the village of Cunrathsdorff (now Kunowice ) . On this occasion, the Frankfurt Council confirmed the Jews' rights and duties at their cemetery in July 1399. The certificate was lost, but was documented by the pastor and local researcher Christian Wilhelm Spieker in the newspaper Frankfurter Patriotisches Wochenblatt of June 13, 1835, which he published.

“We councilors of the ſtad frankenvorde Paul quentius, Heinze Jeſu, Hans Belkow, Otto utz dem Gaſthoue, Diterich Mürow, Jacob Meſſow, Hans ſchulte, Arnt Linchöder, Hans Tempil, Hans Bodeker, Peter Dehene, and Hans petirſtorp with ſulwort vnd ​​rate vnſnen Council confess with these letters to all those who approach, hear or read, that the Jews bury yre dead Jews in front of the sea vf the Judenberg is located in the kuburg and give us from the ſtad because of Ilicheni dead Jews ſ six good behemiſche great, and ſey in the case of adenotan gra alß ſie before bey Hokemannen ſeyn, Dorober we hold on to do differently first and tzu enm with the certificate of the letter, preferably with the approaching Inſegil the given year ninety after Gotare ynunty ninety years after nine Preſſi vnd Martiniani days. "

“We councilors of the city of Frankfurt Paul Quentius, Heinze Jesu, Hans Belkow, Otto from the inn, Diterich Mürow, Jacob Messow, Hans Schulte, Anrt Linchöder, Hans Tempil, Hans Bodecker, Peter Dehene and Hans Petirsdorp with power of attorney and advice from our simple council publicly confess that the Jews should continue to bury their dead Jews on the Judenberg, beyond the Kuhburg, and give us from the city six good Bohemian groschen for every dead Jew , and leave them at their existing graces, as they have previously been with the Hokemanns, We retain all the power to do and not do differently, With the document of the letter, sealed with our attached seal that is given after God's birth thirteen hundred years later and the ninety-ninth year, to Sankt Pressi and Martiniani days . "

According to this, there was a Jewish cemetery already before 1399 at a location with the usual name “Judenberg” behind the watchtower “Kuhburg” on a property that was sold by the Hokemann family to the city of Frankfurt (Oder). Since there are already 1294 Jews in Frankfurt, it is assumed that the Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt (Oder) existed at least 100 years before it was first mentioned. This makes it one of the oldest known burial sites in Central Europe.

First cemetery section 13th century until 1866

The first section, laid out before 1399 and used until 1866, was relatively small and grew relatively slowly due to the repeated expulsions of Jews in Frankfurt (Oder). The section was partially surrounded by a wall with a maximum height of 80 cm. Jews who killed themselves are said to be buried on the highest part, away from the burial ground. Since suicide was against religious rules, no tombstones were placed on them. Presumably, as is customary in Jewish cemeteries, there was a special department for deceased children. There will also have been a special department for unmarried young women. On the first section of the burial, most of the tombstones were made of about 15 cm thick sandstone. The inscriptions were often framed by baroque ornaments.

In a decision of May 20, 1799 by the city of Frankfurt (Oder) on a fee setting of April 30, 1799 of 8 Reichstaler to the Jewish community, two land extensions to the Jewish cemetery are dated: September 19, 1704 and January 5, 1764.

In the reign of Friedrich Wilhelm III. from 1797 Jews in Prussia were given more rights. Jews could become Prussian citizens. To do this, they had to undertake to use specific family names and to write all legally binding documents in a living language. With civil rights, Jews could also acquire land. The synagogue community in Frankfurt (Oder) was constituted on October 19, 1853 as an association under public law and adopted its statute. In this statute the right of every parishioner to a grave is laid down.

"Every member of the community and every Jew who dies within the synagogue district must be given a grave site, in return for a fee to be paid to the community treasury, which, however, can be waived by the board due to poverty."

- Statute of the synagogue community Frankfurt (Oder), October 19, 1853

On December 1, 1853, State Secretary Eduard von Flottwell confirmed the municipal statute . At that time, 828 Jews lived in Frankfurt (Oder). The last burial in the first section of the cemetery was that of Ms. Taube Bergau , wife of Chajjim Bergau on October 12, 1866. The first section of the cemetery was closed in 1867 after the second section of the cemetery had been completed.

Second cemetery section from 1867 to 1939

As early as March 16, 1805, the Jewish community of Frankfurt (Oder) acquired arable land next to the existing cemetery from farmer Martin Hanschke from Cunersdorff (Kunersdorf, today Kunowice ) for the considerable sum of 300 Reichstalers. In 1865 the new section was leveled for 230 thalers and 5 silver groschen. In 1866 a 2.5 to 3 meter high wall made of yellow clinker masonry on a field stone base was built on Crossener Chaussee (today ul. Transportowa) for 1,000 thalers. In 1867 the work was completed. The total cost of the expansion was 2520 thalers, 11 silver groschen and 2 pfennigs. The new section was opened in 1868.

In this section a change in Jewish cemetery culture was clearly visible. There were gravestones without Jewish symbols or Hebrew script. The material used for the tombstones was marble, granite or cast cement . There were lavish family graves.

After 1868, a neo-Romanesque morgue was built on the section with an area of ​​66 m². The building, clad with yellow bricks, had a copper-covered dome with a diameter of 8.12 m. The copper cladding was later replaced by zinc. There was a gold-plated Star of David at a height of 13 m. The new wall was broken through for the access. A brick bridge was built over the ditch of the Crossener Chaussee.

On October 23, 1897, a memorial for the Frankfurt Rabbi Moses Löwenmeyer, who died on February 17, 1893, was inaugurated in the second section of the cemetery. The Frankfurt master stonemason Carl Schulz created a 2.75 m high obelisk made of green Swedish granite, which was provided with gold inscriptions on two sides. The text on the front read:

“The preacher and teacher Rabbi Moses Löwenmeyer, b. zu Graetz 23 Sept. 1823 Chol hammoed Suckoth 5584, died zu Frankfurt a. O. February 17, 1893, 1st day in the Adar 6853 "

On the back it said in German and Hebrew:

“Teaching the truth was in his mouth and falsehood is not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and righteousness, and brought back many from sin. ( Malachi II, 6.) "

Third cemetery section 1940 to 1945

The third section was acquired as garden land around 1920 and designed as a garden by Otto Billerbeck. Jewish citizens who had killed themselves were buried here as early as 1940.

In 1936 the Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten donated a memorial for the 17 Jewish soldiers from Frankfurt (Oder) who died in the First World War , which was erected on the third section of the cemetery. The Frankfurt company Grabmalkunst und Marmorwerk Paul Radack built the foundation and the border. The actual monument was created by the Gersohn company from Berlin-Weißensee. The inauguration was to take place in the spring of 1937. However, the National Socialist authorities had banned Jewish rallies in the open air. That is why the inauguration took place in the summer of 1937. All Jews from Frankfurt (Oder) and the surrounding area gathered under the observation of the Gestapo. The keynote speech was given by Alfred Kann from Landsberg an der Warthe , chairman of the Landsberg branch of the Reich Association of Jewish Front Soldiers and bearer of the Iron Cross 1st class . The memorial could be seen clearly from the Crossener Chaussee, as the third section of the cemetery was fenced off with a chain link fence on a low concrete foundation. The front of the monument read:

“1914 ✡ 1918 / Our fallen comrades / Berthold Angerthal / Julius Biram / Bertholt Cohn / Max Cohn / Alfred Fain / Paul Gerber / Walter Heilborn / Arthur Kaiser / Felix Laband / Paul Lewin / Leopold Lüttge / Fritz Meyerheim / Martin Miedzwinski / Arnhold Saling / Max Schlesinger / Georg Schüler / Heinz Wachsmann "

On the back it read:

"Established by the Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten, local group Frankfurt a / Oder 1937"

On the left it said in Hebrew:

"Love is stronger than death"

On the right it said in Hebrew:

"May their souls be integrated into the bond of life"

After the second cemetery section was fully occupied, the northern part of the third section bordering the second section was used from 1940. Gravestones could not be placed during this time due to the oppression of the Jews by the National Socialists.

In 1942 the National Socialist authorities instructed that all Jewish cemeteries in Germany had to be handed over to the administration of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany , based in Berlin. This had to offer the cemeteries to the communities and cities in which they were located for sale. After Kunersdorf was incorporated into Frankfurt (Oder) in the same year, the town received the offer to buy it in a letter dated December 29, 1942 to the mayor Martin Albrecht. Negotiations dragged on because the city actually had no use for the property and viewed it as inferior. On December 2, 1944, the forced sale of the 20,907 m² was completed. The city wanted to pay 10 pfennigs per square meter. For the material of the tombstones 22 Reichsmarks per ton were set. Only measures for the demolition of the cemetery was the transfer of the water container to the New Cemetery (today: Frankfurt Main Cemetery). Then the front of the Second World War moved up to the Oder. There was also no rewriting in the land register before the end of the war.

On February 15, 1944, the only British air raid on Frankfurt (Oder) took place. Two bombs fell on the Jewish cemetery and one right next to it. The grave sites of Dr. Baswitz and his parents and Martin Heydemann and his parents were completely destroyed and the surrounding graves were affected. The north side of the neo-Romanesque morgue in the second section was indented. The hall already lacked the roofing because the Nazis had removed the zinc sheet. At the house of the cemetery attendant Otto Billerbeck, all doors and windows were pushed out.

For the Frankfurt doctor and internist Hermann Marcus, who died on December 11, 1944, the last official Jewish burial took place at the Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt (Oder). At the instigation of Otto Billerbeck, he was given a gravestone despite the terrible situation of the Jews at that time.

post war period

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Germans returned to Kunersdorf in 1945 were obliged to work at the Jewish cemetery. Parts of a wrought-iron, ornate fence were dismantled in order to fence in an ISU-122 assault gun erected as a Soviet war memorial in the Kunersdorf village cemetery. The assault gun was replaced by a T-43 tank in the 1990s . The fence is still there.

In 1945 the areas east of the Oder were added to Poland. The German population had to leave their houses and apartments and were driven west. The areas east of the Oder were predominantly settled by people from western Poland.

In autumn 1945 the former cemetery gardener Otto Billerbeck was able to visit the cemetery for the first time after the border was drawn. His house was destroyed; Otherwise there was no damage to the cemetery.

On the Sunday of the Dead in 1956, a small group from Frankfurt (Oder) visited the communal cemetery and the Jewish cemetery in Słubice. Among the visitors was Otto Billerbeck, who was meanwhile employed by the municipal office for green spaces in Frankfurt (Oder). Until 1990 that was the only time that such a visit was possible. The cemetery was a bit overgrown, but intact. The Polish authorities had put nameplates on the war graves on the main route to the morgue.

In November 1965, the German homeland researcher Eckard Reiß from Frankfurt (Oder) visited the Jewish cemetery with his fiancée and took a number of photos. The cemetery was progressively neglected. The bomb crater next to the morgue was still there. However, the name plaques were missing on the war graves on the main path.

Otto Billerbeck discovered theft of gravestones and grave openings during his visits from 1972. Around 1974 both entrances were walled up. In autumn 1975 there was demolition work. The tombstone of the last Jew officially buried in the cemetery, Dr. Marcus had been placed on wooden rolls. Part of the cemetery wall had been removed. Most of the tombstones in the first section of the cemetery had been chipped off and smashed at the level of the ground.

In 1978 a hotel restaurant was opened on the cemetery grounds. It was initially called "Zajazd Staropolski", later "Gościnie Staropolski". Extensive earthworks were carried out for the construction. The upper part of the slope was cleared with graves and bones and on the lower part of the slope, partly outside the cemetery, heaped up and leveled.

In 1988, a large part of the devastated cemetery was fenced in on behalf of the Nissenbaum Foundation, except for a driveway to the hotel. The foundation of Shimon Nissenbaum , who was born in Warsaw, looks after around 200 Jewish cemeteries in Poland.

In the spring of 1999 a group of rabbis from the USA and Israel visited Frankfurt (Oder) to look for the grave of Josef Teomim . The group included Rabbi Berel Polatsek and Rabbi Wanchotzker from the USA and Rabbi Dovid Shmidl from the Asra Kadisha in Israel. They did not know at the time that the cemetery was now on Polish territory. They located the Jewish cemetery and determined its desolate condition. They put up a plaque with the Hebrew inscription, "Hidden here is the holy rabbi author of Pri megadim his purity shall protect us, Amen". The board was removed by strangers a short time later. As a result, the American "Committee for the Restoration of the Jewish Cemetery in Słubice" was founded under the presidency of Rabbi Berel Polatsek. In the summer of 1999, the cities of Słubice and Frankfurt (Oder) erected a three-meter-high memorial stone next to the former morgue on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the first mention of the Jewish cemetery. The stone was attended by the on 2 July 1999 National Association of Jewish Communities of Brandenburg , the 1998 newly established Jewish community in Frankfurt (Oder) with its first chairman Mark Perelman, the Słubice Mayor Stanisław Ciercierski and Frankfurt social department heads Martin Patzelt inaugurated

In 1993 and 1999 there were media reports about the finds of gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions in the forest near Słubice, on the site of a former air base. It wasn't just Jewish gravestones, however; some probably came from the city cemetery. Three of the stones were taken to the nearby village of Urad for safekeeping in 1999 and transferred to the Jewish cemetery in 2011. The stones bore the following inscriptions:

“In memory of our good mother Therese Samuel geb. Levy born 12/27/1856 died 9/19/1924 "

"Julius Biram b. November 4, 1881 fell on July 5, 1916 = 4th Tammuz 5676 near Gorodyze "

“Here in God my dear husband, our good father Berthold Cohn, née. March 3, 1876, died October 4, 1918 as a victim of the World War "

Julius Biram and Berthold Cohn were also listed on the memorial for the Jewish soldiers who died in the First World War.

Around 2000, part of the Jewish cemetery owned by the town of Słubice and the hotel were privatized. The area was shared by three owners. In 2001 Rabbi Berel Polatsek came to Slubice for his fourth visit. He wanted to negotiate with the mayor of Słubice about the return of the Jewish cemetery. That failed. As a compromise, the site with the tombs of three important rabbis should be assigned. The hotel was used by a nightclub called "Eden" at the time, which caused horror in several places. During a state visit to the USA in 2002 , the Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller was asked about the scandal.

At the beginning of 2004 the town of Słubice bought back the part of the Jewish cemetery that was not in their possession for 1 million złoty on behalf of the Polish state . On March 31st, the mayor of Słubice, Ryszard Bodziaki, signed the notarized deed in which the property of the Słubice Jewish Cemetery was transferred to the Szczecin Jewish community, which was responsible for the administration of property in western Poland.

For several years, the former location of the three graves of the rabbis Zacharja Mendel von Podheiz, Josef Teomim and Jehuda Lejb Margaliot was searched. On April 28, 2004, three new stones were erected by the Hungarian master stonemason Miklos Horvath from Nyiregyháza. The order was given by the New York Committee for the restoration of the Jewish cemetery in Słubice . The total cost was $ 20,000. The earthworks, carried out under the supervision of Rabbi Dovid Shmidl, turned out to be difficult, as the ground that was poured in 1975 slipped behind. On May 1, 2004, the work was completed. The three graves were surrounded by a 2.50 m high chain link fence with a barbed wire crown to protect against vandalism and desecration. The memorial was inaugurated on May 4, 2004. Consul Gerald C. Anderson from the American Embassy in Warsaw, Marek Lewandowski as representative of the voivode of the Lubusz region, the Slubice mayor Ryszard Bodziacke and the Frankfurt mayor Katja Wolle were present.

In 2007, the Słubice Jewish Cemetery became the property of the Foundation for the Protection of Jewish Heritage ( Fundacja Ochrony Dziedzictwa Żydowskiego in Polish ). In May 2007, under the supervision of Rabbis Moische Akerman and Chizkiya Kalmanowitz, the Asra Kadisha began digging in five places in order to determine the cemetery boundary for the first burial section. It became clear that the three rabbis' graves were not in the right place. It was also found that all the moving earth was riddled with remains. That was the result of civil engineering work for the hotel in 1975. The affected soil was declared cemetery soil and moved to the original location, where a community grave was laid.

In 2007 the Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main provided the Hebrew cemetery register and a German translation.

In 2008 the entire southeastern cemetery wall foundation was exposed. The foundation of the wall rests on field stones. Above that, there were up to eleven layers of bricks that formed a 1.50-high wall. No remains of a wall were found between the first and second sections of the cemetery. A wall breakthrough found was assigned to a cable route with four channels. During the construction of the cable route, all family graves in the second area on the former wall were destroyed.

Occupancy

From the mid-1670s, intensive use of the cemetery is documented by a cemetery register drawn up in Hebrew. The register bears the title “Directory of the people buried in the Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt / Oder 1690–1864.” In contrast to the dates in the title, around 2,000 graves from 1677 to 1866 are recorded. The first entry from November 19, 1677 mentions a woman Zirel, daughter of the well-learned Gerson KaZ .

The handwritten register shows two different handwritings. All entries up to around 1850 were written fluently. It is believed that this person registered the existing graves around 1850. The following entries were made in a more awkward handwriting. This second person probably added to the register until the 1860s.

In 1937 the Breslau Rabbi Bernhard Brilling stayed in Frankfurt (Oder) for research purposes. The chairman of the synagogue community, Mr. Max (?) Struck, handed over the Hebrew cemetery register to him. Bernhard Brilling sent the manuscript from Breslau to the complete archive of German Jews in Berlin. The register was translated into German in 1940 by the director of the General Archives of German Jews, Jacob Jacobson, on the instructions of the National Socialist authorities . The mismatched translation bears the title Friedhofsregister der Jüdischen Gemeinde Frankfurt ad Oder . In the preface to the cemetery register of the Jewish community in Frankfurt ad Oder , Jacob Jacobson points out that the names of many deceased refer to an origin from Berlin, Frankfurt (Oder) and villages and smaller towns in the area. But there were also many references to origin from more distant areas. Some names referred to Frankfurt (Oder) as a not insignificant location for Hebrew printing and bookshops. Jacobson also points out that not all of the deceased for the period concerned are on the register. He assumes that, due to their poverty, the people in question would only have received wooden monuments that were already weathered when the cemetery register was created. The high number of children's graves was striking. Jacob Jacobson, head of the General Archives of German Jews, had a photocopy of the register made, which he took with him when he was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in May 1943 . After Theresienstadt was liberated in May 1945, Jacob Jacobson emigrated to England. In 1960 Bernhard Billing was able to make a copy of the photocopy in Münster, which was ultimately kept in the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt am Main. The Hebrew and German versions were found again in 2007 through research by the Frankfurt homeland researcher Eckard Reiss .

The headmaster and teacher of the Israelite elementary school in Frankfurt, Louis Weyl, described in a newspaper article in 1862 two partly illegible tombstones from the years 1693 and 1702. They belonged to the graves of Rabbi Aron Levi Heller (d. 1693), his wife Mirls or Mirels Heller ( d. 1693), her son Rabbi Moses Levi Heller (d. 1702) and his wife Nissel Heller (d. 1702). These entries are also included in the cemetery register in an addendum, but without the year.

In 1941 110 young Jews were buried in the cemetery. The dead all came from a labor camp of the Märkisches Elektrizitätswerk in Finkenheerd and almost all of them came from Lodz . The bodies were marked by malnutrition and showed signs of abuse.

After the end of the Second World War in May 1945, between May and September at least 82 German war victims, mostly known by name, were buried directly on the main route to the morgue. (51 Wehrmacht, 14 Volkssturm, 3 Reich Labor Service, 4 civilians, 10 unknown).

The Billerbeck family of cemetery administrators

In 1870 the non-Jewish cemetery gardener Heinrich Billerbeck was hired as the first cemetery attendant with an annual salary of 150 marks by the Jewish community in Frankfurt (Oder).

After his death in 1900, his son Robert Billerbeck took over the office with an annual salary of 200 marks. He lived in a house in the cemetery that is said to have been built around 1880. The house is said to have been built in place of a previous building. There are no written sources for this, but maps prior to 1880 indicate a building at these locations. It is believed that it was a tahara house for the ritual washing of corpses, which was made redundant by the construction of the new morgue.

On April 1, 1919, Robert Billerbeck's son Otto Billerbeck took over the position at the age of 23 who had been an apprentice to his father. He had to be released by the Jewish community on May 27, 1941 under pressure from the National Socialist authorities. The National Socialists put him in the Falkenhagen labor camp , from which he was soon released due to illness. Despite the prohibition by the Gestapo, he continued to take care of the cemetery and the funerals. Despite her terrible situation, the synagogue community worried about her former employee and sold him the house and 700 m² of land on November 26, 1942. During the forced sale of the cemetery to the city of Frankfurt (Oder) on June 29, 1944, the plot area was adjusted to 770 m².

literature

  • Eckard Reiss : Makom tov - the good place. Jewish cemetery Frankfurt (Oder) Słubice - dobre miejsce. Cmentarz żydowski Frankfurr nad Odrą / Słubice . Ed .: Magdalena Abraham-Diefenbach. Past Publishing, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86408-067-8 .
  • Ralf-Rüdiger Targiel , Henryka Hejduk-Szamlicka: Brief history of the Jewish cemetery Frankfurt (Oder) - Słubice . Ed .: City Administration of Słubice. Zielona Gorá 1999.

Web links

Commons : Słubice Jewish Cemetery  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Friedrich II. (Prussia) : Au ministre d'état Comte de Finckenstein a Berlin . Letters / political dispositions and decrees of Frederick the Great. In: Johann Gustav Droysen (Ed.): The political correspondence of Frederick the Great . tape 18 . Reimar Hobbing, Berlin August 12, 1759, p. 481 ( archive.org [accessed January 10, 2018]).
  2. ^ First main part or collection of documents on the history of the spiritual foundations, the noble families, as well as the towns and castles of the Mark Brandenburg . In: Adolph Friedrich Riedel (Ed.): Codex diplomaticus Brandenburgensis . tape 23 . Reimer, Berlin 1862, p. 6 ( google.de [accessed on January 8, 2018]).
  3. 30 foot high fortified tower at ul. 1-go Maja 32
  4. rich merchant family from Frankfurt (Oder)
  5. 1399
  6. July 2nd
  7. ^ Christian Wilhelm Spieker : The Jewish cemetery . In: Frankfurter Patriotic Wochenblätter . XXV. Vintage. Frankfurt (Oder) June 13, 1835, p. 68 .
  8. Central Archives for the History of the Jews, Jerusalem, D / FR1 / 79 sheet 6
  9. ^ Acta Generalia re. Edicte & Recripte in Jewish schools . S. 16 §76 . ; City archive Frankfurt (Oder), signature BA I: VII 106, sheet 44
  10. ^ Stadtarchiv Frankfurt (Oder), signature BA I: VII 106
  11. Central Archives for the History of the Jews, Jerusalem, D / FR1 / 79 sheet d
  12. ^ Centrum Judaicum Archiv, Berlin, call number 1, 75A Fr 5, no. 45, # 2788, sheet 76
  13. ^ Centrum Judaicum Archiv, Berlin, call number 1, 75A Fr 5, no. 45, # 2788, sheet 81
  14. ^ Centrum Judaicum Archiv, Berlin, call number 1, 75A Fr 5, no. 45, # 2788, sheet 85
  15. Frankfurter Oderzeitung, October 24, 1897
  16. ^ Probably: Altmann & Gerson, Grabmale, Lothringer Straße 32, Berlin-Weißensee
  17. ^ Commemorative book of the Reich Association of Jewish Front Soldiers (RjF) - Places "EF". In: denkmalprojekt.org. Retrieved January 9, 2018 .
  18. a b File on the sale of the Jewish cemetery, Stadtarchiv Frankfurt (Oder), signature BA I: XIII 52, sheet 36
  19. ^ Horst Joachim: The Jewish cemetery of Frankfurt (Oder) . In: Association of friends and sponsors of the Viadrina Museum Frankfurt / Oder (Ed.): Frankfurter Jahrbuch . 1999, p. 128-136 .
  20. Act podpisany . In: Słubicka gazeta . No. 7 , April 9, 2004, ISSN  1426-5699 , p. 1 (Polish).
  21. ^ Archive of the Jewish Museum of the City of Frankfurt am Main , PSR B485
  22. ^ Archives of the Jewish Museum of the City of Frankfurt am Main , PSR B083
  23. Ralf Look: Book about the Jewish cemetery found . In: Märkische Oderzeitung . Frankfurt (Oder) May 2, 2009 ( alemannia-judaica.de [accessed January 12, 2018]).
  24. Louis Weyl: From the cemetery . In: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums . No. 35 . Leipzig August 26, 1862, p. 494 ( uni-frankfurt.de [accessed on January 9, 2018]).
  25. Otto Billerbeck: The fate of the Frankfurt Jews seen from the Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt-Oder . unpublished notes by Otto Billerbeck. March 27, 1950 (Federal Archives Berlin).