Online Archive of Jewish Cemeteries

Erle is a village in the southwestern Münsterland.

Only one Jewish family lived in Erle, named Herz, later Cahn. They moved to the village in 1824 and later ran a textile and haberdashery store in the center of the village.

The residence of the Cahn family is preserved and is located opposite the church.

In 1842, the Cahn family acquired a plot of land on Schermbecker Straße and built a cemetery there. A total of 11 members of the family were buried there.

There was no synagogue. The family probably belonged to the Jewish community of Schermbeck.

In the middle of the 19th century in Krudenburg, a place on the 
right bank of the Lippe, about 18 km upstream from the Lippemündung near 
Wesel, Jewish families can be traced. On a historical map can be found
 the house of a family Aron Wolf in the village center. As residents are 
the members of this family certainly in 1865 verifiable, 
möglicherweise, however, the family has already lived länger in Krudenburg.
 Anyway, the establishment of a cemetery indicates several families.

The first Jewish cemetery was located at the Wetzmühle in Holthausen. It is not preserved.

Since 1777 the cemetery exists in the city center at the Gracht. Possibly (according to Brocke) burials took place here already from 1730. The cemetery  was expanded several times, because Duisburg Jews were also buried here. A mourning hall was added in 1920. A memorial commemorates the murdered Jews today.

The cemetery is still used today

Until around the year 1900, the Jews from the northern districts of Duisburg used the cemetery in Holten. Then two own cemeteries were created: The cemetery at the Mattlerstrasse and at the Möhlenkampstrasse.

The initially used cemetery at the Möhlenkampstrasse on the Südfriedhof was abandoned because of the subsidence by mining and the associated Überflurungen. One buried then from 1924 at the Mattlerstrasse.
Tombstones are not preserved at the Möhlenkampstrasse.  This cemetery was occupied from 1911 to 1929.

The cemetery on Königstrasse is probably the oldest Duisburg cemetery. He was created in the Middle Ages at the gates of the city on the Christian cemetery. Buried here was from 1823 to 1881. Then the cemetery was closed by the city.

In 1908, the cemetery was built over when the Duisburg city center was redesigned. Several graves were moved to the cemetery on Sternbuschweg.

Today the cemetery is located under a driveway to an underground car park.

The first cemeteries were located in Meiderich and in the city center. Then the cemetery at Sternbuschweg was used, from 1923 the forest cemetery at Düsseldorfer Strasse. It was used for normal burials until 1940, then for urn burials of concentration camp victims. Since 1981 it has been used by the Jewish community of Duisburg.

The cemetery in Duisburg Beek at the Friedhofstrasse was first occupied in 1893. In 1939 the last normal burial was carried out. After that urns of people who were murdered in concentration camps were buried. Today there are still 49 gravestones.

The Hamborn, Marxloh and Bruckhausen Jews used the cemetery in Holten on Vennstrasse, later on the southern cemetery. However, this cemetery became increasingly unusable due to subsidence and flooding caused by mining.

From 1924, the cemetery on Mattlerstrasse was then used. The last burials were urn burials of concentration camp victims.

Today there are still 66 gravestones left.

The cemetery in Ruhrort on Rheinbrückenstrasse existed from 1732. Towards the end of the 19th century, the cemetery was occupied, the city planned a development on the site. As a result, the cemetery was abandoned and the remains were moved to the Mattlerstrasse cemetery. Today there is still the remains of a wall on the street.

After the inner-city cemeteries were closed, burials were held on Sterbuschweg in Field 22, and from 1919 also in Field 37. The memorial for the fallen of the 1st World War was later removed by the Nazis. After 1923 was no longer buried here