Jewish cemetery (Rossow)

The village Rossow is a former Mecklenburg territory and served as a lively trade center between Mecklenburg and Prussia in the 18th century. Here the Jewish inhabitants asked for their own burial place. This was done in 1793. For a sparsely populated village like Rossow, the Jewish population was very high. The population was 20% Jewish. This circumstance changed later, however, due to strong emigration. Many Jews in Rossow lived until the 1860s from peddling in the community, but probably also from smuggling.

Much also speaks for an intact community life between the Christian peasant families and the Jewish population. Rabbi in 1797 was Shmuel Mendel, schoolmaster was Moses Joseph. One of his successors, Marcus Samuel, was both schoolmaster and shepherd.

The cemetery was probably not used for several years before the community was dissolved in 1854. Two years after the dissolution of the Rossow community, the Röbeler merchant Moritz bought the cemetery on August 1, 1856 with the approval of the office Wredenhagen to secure the burial ground for posterity. Already around 1920 it is described as at least dilapidated.

Around 1950, according to eyewitness reports, about 30 graves were still visible, but an official survey conducted only a year later described it as barely visible. The cemetery seems never to have become the property of the former Jewish community. By 1962 at the latest, the property was owned by the people. According to further statements, in 1989 there were still remains of two gravestones. Today it shows a size of 217 square meters in the land register and is no longer recognizable as a cemetery.