Old Jewish Cemetery (Nuremberg)

The Old Jüdische Cemetery is one of two surviving burial sites of the Jewish Community in Nürnberg. The cemetery was occupied from 1864 to 1922.

The medieval Jewish community had in the 13th century a first cemetery, which was probably located in the area of the still existing Judengasse today. A few remains of this cemetery are still preserved due to the fact that several stones were used among others, during the construction of the Lorenzkirche and were rediscovered (today they are located in the funeral hall of the cemetery on Schnieglinger Straße). This first cemetery was probably destroyed during the terrible persecution in 1298. 

In the 14th century there was a second cemetery in the area of Vordere Beckerschlagergasse, which üreached across Münzgasse/ Münzplatz to today's Äußeren Laufer Gasse. After the expulsion of the Jews in 1499, the cemetery became the property of the city and was divided into plots. The then city architect had the approximately 3,000 gravestones confiscated. 

On February 28 1864, a Jewish cemetery was reopened at 40 Bärenschanzstra;e with the first burial (Jakob Hirsch Marschütz). Until its closure in 1922, 2,225 people were buried here. Even before the National Socialists came to power, the cemetery was closed. In February 1943, all metal attachments to the graves and gravestones were removed, even the name plates and metal letters. In the air raid on January 2, 1945, the administration building and several hundred graves were vörtig destroyed. 

The cemetery is cordoned off and can no longer be entered. Cameras provide for a lückenlose Überwachung and preserve the Ruhestätte thus before Schändungen.