Jewish cemetery (Landau)

The cemetery was established at the instigation of the then Rabbi Elias Grünebaum. In the Middle Ages there had already been a cemetery, but it is no longer known where it was located. In the meantime, the Jews of Landau were mostly buried in Essingen near Landau. More than 800 Landau Jews are buried in the cemetery. There is an older part and a newer one. During the Nazi regime the Jewish communities were forced to sell their cemeteries to the respective municipality. In 1944, after protracted negotiations, the city of Landau acquired the entire site, but without having it registered in the land register. Thus nothing stood in the way of the reassignment after the war to the "Israelitische Kultusvereinigung der Rheinpfalz". Since 1991, the cemetery has been listed as a historical monument. In the older part of the cemetery some gravestones lie on the ground, overgrown with moss. Ivy climbs up others. The Hebrew inscriptions are often no longer legible.

In the new part of the cemetery are buried Jewish people who survived the Holocaust - died between 1945 -1998. Before World War 2 about 600 Jewish citizens lived in Landau. Towards the end of the war, the city declared itself "free of Jews". The people were ostracized, expelled, arrested, deported, killed during the Nazi regime. Some families managed to escape and emigrate. Not without first having to sell their entire possessions to the rulers of the time for a ridiculous price.

Behind a hedge lies the smallest part of the cemetery. Here stands a large honorary grave of the city. The stone is dedicated to the last rabbi of Landau, Dr. Kurt Metzger and his wife Lore Scharff. He held this office for only three years, from 1935 to 1938. He was arrested on November 10, 1938, the day after the desecration and burning of the Landau synagogue, and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. After 2 months he was released, went to Nuremberg and took over the rabbinate here. Only at the urging of his parents did he decide to emigrate, to New York. Here he met his former student Lore Scharff from Landau again. They married in 1942.

The couple later came to Landau more often at the invitation of the city and always worked for reconciliation between Christians*, Muslims* and Jews*. They were instrumental in setting up the prayer room in the Franck-Loebschen-Haus. The Torah scroll also comes from them. Dr. Metzger died in America in 1992 and was buried in Landau at the request of his family. This grave site already belonged to his wife's family before. The grandparents of Lore Scharff already lay here. Lore died in America in 2010 and is also buried there.

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Text: Frigga Pfirrmann