Jewish cemetery (Röbel (Müritz))

Near the old city Röbel is said to have been already around the year 1200 a Jewish cemetery. However, reliable data are missing.

As a cemetery in 1700 an area of about 33 square meters on the Mirower Straße, in front of the former city wall, was purchased and some decades later eingezäunt. At the beginning of the 19th century, due to the increasing number of members of the community, the cemetery had to be extended, as the area was no longer sufficient for burials. Records of the burials have not been preserved. The last burial took place in 1937.

At the end of the 19th century and before the First World War, cemetery closures occurred in parallel with the rise of anti-Semitism. In 1938 the entire cemetery was heavily damaged by the SA, in 1942 the iron grids and other metal parts were dismantled and melted down, most of the gravestones were sold to a stonemason

Finally the cemetery was destroyed when in 1945 the Red Army established a prisoner of war camp here. Later a gas station was built on the site. Today, only two gravestones remain, placed in the courtyard of the restored synagogue and at one of the city churches.

When a supermarket was to be built on the cemetery site in 2002, protests were raised. A German - Armenian work camp erected stelae of concrete and clay, which should remind of the former gravestones. The steles were destroyed several times.

The Jüdische cemetery in Röbel has touched me very much, but different from comparable cemeteries:
On the one hand, the remarkable efforts of a group of 
youth from around the world to keep the memory alive. A 
Homeland Association, which issues numerous publications.
On the other hand, the sad indifference in dealing with 
this cemetery. A trampling path in the middle über the area, no 
umzäunung and years ago around a hair a supermarket in the middle of the 
cemetery. Shändings and Verwüstungen this Gelä