New Jewish Cemetery (Würzburg)

A new Jewish cemetery (also: Jüdischer Friedhof Lengfeld or officially Israelitischer Friedhof) was established from 1880 to 1882 and consecrated on July 4, 1882. In the decades before, the Jews of Würzburg had been buried in Höchberg and Heidingsfeld. The Höchberg cemetery remained the preferred burial place for many Orthodox even after 1882, especially after the possibility of burying ash urns was available in the new cemetery since about 1900 (urn hall). The oldest gravestone is from 1881 (Amalie Bechhöfer). A massive stone wall surrounds the cemetery. In front of the main entrance there is a big cemetery house with a mortuary and a tahara hall, an apartment of the cemetery caretaker and recreation rooms. A grove of honor was established for the fallen of the First World War. In the period of the Second World War the cemetery house with the apartment had been confiscated by the city. A vegetable gardener had been given the cemetery to supervise. On the whole, however, no major destruction was caused. About 40 gravestones had been knocked over at the end of the war. Some had been toppled by a shell impact. However, the cemetery was overgrown with overgrown shrubs and grass. After the first restoration measures, a memorial for the Jews murdered during the Nazi era was dedicated on November 11, 1945, next to the memorial for the fallen of the First World War. The dedication speech was held by Rabbi Neuhaus from Frankfurt am Main. 
  
Extension of the cemetery 2013/15: Since the time around 2000, possibilities for an extension of the cemetery were sought. Initially, the  creation of a Jewish section at the forest cemetery was discussed, but this was not pursued further, as a separate mortuary and a Tahara house would have had to be created there. In the summer of 2013, the city council decided to expand the cemetery, which had existed since 1881/82, and provided the necessary budgetary funds. The expansion area is located adjacent to the existing cemetery on a brownfield site facing the B8 federal highway and as an extension of the David-Schuster-Weg, which then leads to a bike path and pedestrian bridge over the B8 in the direction of Lengfeld. The 2,300 m² large plot has been owned by the Jewish Community of Würzburg for several years. The first occupancy of the new part of the cemetery should still be possible in 2015, at the latest when the new area is completed by the end of 2015. About 400 additional gravesites will be able to be created on the expansion area.