New Jewish Cemetery (Dresden)

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New Jewish Cemetery Dresden (2018)

The New Jewish Cemetery is Dresden's second Jewish cemetery and is located next to the Trinitatisfriedhof on Fiedlerstrasse at the corner of Fetscherstrasse .

history

Mourning hall of the cemetery, from 1950 to 2002 synagogue of the Jewish community of Dresden
Star of David of the former Semper Synagogue

By 1860 the Old Jewish Cemetery , which was the first Jewish cemetery in Saxony at the time, had become too small. In 1863, the Jewish community purchased a piece of land adjacent to the Trinitatisfriedhof for 1000 thalers and founded the second cemetery here in 1866. In the same year, the death hall was built according to a design by Ernst Giese . The New Jewish Cemetery was officially opened on June 2, 1867, and the first burial took place in 1868.

In contrast to other Jewish cemeteries, this cemetery took up the traditions of Christian cemeteries: it was not required that the graves face east, floral decorations and Christian symbols on tombstones were permitted and from 1911 cremations were also permitted. The cemetery remained open during the Nazi era and was an important social meeting place for the Jewish community at that time.

Until 1990, the access to the synagogue and today's hall of the dead was covered with grave slabs

During the bombing of Dresden on February 13, 1945, numerous graves were destroyed or damaged. The mortuary hall burned out completely. It was rebuilt after the end of the war by Edmund Schuchardt and, since the Semper Synagogue was destroyed during the November pogroms in 1938 , it was converted into a synagogue . The synagogue was inaugurated on June 18, 1950. The rescued Star of David from the Semper Synagogue was placed on its dome . Since a synagogue is not allowed to stand in a cemetery, a hedge was created facing the burial ground. With the inauguration of the New Synagogue in 2002, the building regained its function as a mortuary hall.

From 1947 the partially destroyed grave sites were also restored. The care of the cemetery, on which individual grave fields were closed for burials over time, was also carried out during the GDR period through the initiative of Aktion Sühnezeichen . In 1990, the access to the then synagogue was covered with new road slabs. Until then, tombstones had been used as slabs. It is not known whether these had to be relocated during the Nazi era or whether they were used after the end of the war due to a lack of material. In the 1990s there were multiple desecrations and willful damage to grave sites. On August 29, 2010 an arson attack was carried out on the death hall. In October 2013, grave sculptures made of non-ferrous metal were stolen from several cemeteries in Dresden, including inscription plates and ornaments in the New Jewish Cemetery in several break-ins. Among other things, the grave of Georg Arnhold was affected .

In 2002 there were around 3,000 grave sites in the cemetery. This makes it one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Saxony.

Graves

Memorials

Cenotaph for the Jewish victims of the First World War from 1916

In 1916, on the initiative of the mayor at the time, Max Elb, a memorial was erected for the Jews who died in the First World War . Probably the first memorial of its kind at the time, it was created by the Leipzig architect Wilhelm Haller . It is in front of the mortuary hall.

Behind the funeral hall there is a memorial to 20 Jews murdered by fascists between 1933 and 1945. Their graves were destroyed by the bombing in 1945, so that in 1950 they were buried again in a community urn grave. On April 22, 1975 were desecrated at the cemetery during Fascism Torah scrolls in a Torah grave buried. Since 1994 there has been a memorial for the victims of National Socialism at the end of the cemetery. It was created by the Hungarian artist Matyas Varga .

Graves of famous people

literature

  • Frank Thiele (ed.): New Jewish cemetery in Dresden's Johannstadt . Hille, Dresden 2003, ISBN 3-932858-66-2 .

Web links

Commons : Neuer Jüdischer Friedhof  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Thiele (ed.): Old Jewish cemetery in Dresden Neustadt. Hille, Dresden 2000, ISBN 3-932858-40-9 , p. 124.
  2. ^ History of the New Jewish Cemetery
  3. ↑ Fire at the New Jewish Cemetery in Dresden, MDR from August 29, 2010 ( Memento from August 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ See Expensive and Available: Non-ferrous metal is increasingly sought after as stolen goods . dnn-online.de, October 28, 2013.
  5. ↑ Heike Liebsch: Jewish cemeteries in Saxony - a comparison . In: HATiKVA (Hrsg.): The old Jewish cemetery in Dresden. ... that we subdue to plead with a grave site ... Hentrich & Hentrich, Teetz 2002, ISBN 3-933471-29-X , p. 236.

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 14.7 "  N , 13 ° 46 ′ 36.5"  E