Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery was inaugurated on 26.06.1881 by Rabbi Willstätter from Karlsruhe. Present were high-ranking representatives of  Grand Ducal and municipal authorities, the Catholic and Protestant city pastor, as well as many residents of Rastatt.

On 19.10.1941, the official order was issued by the Nazi regime, starting from the Rastatt District Office, to close the cemetery. The letter also referred to a decree of the Minister of the Interior.

From Stresemannstraße turn eastward into Pferdebade street, and after the railroad underpass follow its continuation Beuthener Straße. The third street to the right is Kattowitzer Straße, into it you turn, and into the next one again to the right, into Kreuzburger Straße. After a few meters on the right side is the Jewish cemetery.

In the middle of the 19th century, the neo-orthodox direction established itself in Halberstadt - in contrast to the mostly reform-oriented Jewish communities in larger cities. The number of members grew, and thus various reconstruction and new building measures became necessary. This included the establishment of two new cemeteries: first "Am Berge" (1844), directly next to the oldest Jewish burial ground "Am Roten Strumpf" (1644), then in the north of Halberstadt, on the Klein Quenstedter Chaussee.

The cemetery „Am Berge“ is the second, which was established by the Jüdische Gemeinde - immediately north of the cemetery "Am Roten Strumpf". Both are separated only by the access road to the Catholic cemetery. When this second area behind the houses Am Berge 5-9 was leased or acquired for the first time is disputed: 1696 (when with the extension of the old cemetery already the property "Am Berge" was added?) or actually only 1844 (as already described by the community historian Auerbach in 1866).

The cemetery "Am Roten Strumpf" is the oldest of three burial grounds of the Jewish community of Halberstadt. In 1644, still under episcopal protection, it could be established southwest of the Johannistor (at today's intersection Sternstraße / Westendorf). Before that, the dead had to be buried elsewhere (in Derenburg and Aschersleben?). The small, square area had been leased from the St. Johannis monastery. The name of the field refers to an earlier execution site. According to this, the executioner put on a red stocking to avoid being recognized.

At present, the old Jewish cemetery in ul.Kalinowszczyzna covers an area of about 1 hectare. Of the 3,000 gravestones, which were densely arranged over the entire area of the hill, only about 60 have survived to this day. However, there are still many gravestones of people who were particularly meritorious for the Jewish community in Lublin. The Matzewa of the learned Talmudist Jaakov Kopelman, who died in 1541, is the oldest Jewish tombstone in Poland and stands in its original place.

Evolution:

On Jan. 13, 1718, Joseph Meyer applied for a Jewish cemetery in Oranienburg, which was rejected because there were only two Jewish families in Oranienburg and they could be buried in Briesethal and Berlin. The Jewish population increased and Frederick William III issued an edict in 1812 making Jews citizens (not full equality). In the same year another application for the cemetery was successful. On 16.03.1815 the first burial took place of Jakob David Wolff, who died of convulsions at the age of 20 months.