There are very few records about the matters concerning the cemetery and the Jewish citizens of Gunzenhausen. We have studied, among other things, the work of  Johanna Schönborn, who compiled the information in 1992 as a history / social studies  special credit work. We quote passages from her  writings  at the beginning. We also found some materials in the city archives and also received interesting photos from the descendants of the TheilheimerFamily. The theologian and historian Dr. Hahn from Alemannia Judaica of the study group that researches the history of the Jews in Southern Germany and environs, sent us a newspaper clipping about the Jewish cemetery of Gunzenhausen of 1930. The web site www.alemannia-judaica.de  is a good source of information about the Jewish history of Southern Germany.

The citizens of the Gunzenhausen Jewish community were said to have been “numerous and well-to-do” and it appears to have been one of the more significant Jewish communities. The first indication of that was an annual report of the historical society of Mittelfranken of 1830, which states that the burial grounds of the Jewry  in Gunzenhausen were to be the permanent Jewish cemetery with the  official  name of “Judenkirchhof” (Jewisch Cemetery), which it is to this day. It was located outside the historic town, north of the current Nürnberger Street. The property has been developed and the exact parcel is hard to locate.

The Markgrafen (Margraves) Casimir and Georg of Ansbach” (1515-1527 and 1543) began to systematically expel the Jews from the “Fürstentum (principality) Ansbach”, and following the “Landtag” meeting, also from Gunzenhausen. Later, in 1561  “Georg Friedrich der Fromme” (the pious one) banished the remaining Jews from Ansbach.(per the records regarding Jewish matters in the registry of the magistrate in Ansbach, volume 5 #1.)

Consequently the remaining Jews were forced to bury their dead in Bechhofen. The first headstone/monument of one of the Gunzenhausen Jews appears to have been from the year 1607 and must have been erected for the David Broedel family. No exact data can be given, since the sources often contradict each other.

When the Jewish community regained more of their rights again, they started to look for a new location for the “Judenfriedhof”. Like most Jewish congregations they had to settle for a location far from the center of town.

This new cemetery  of the “Israelitische Kultusgemeinde” (local Israely  authority of worship)  is located  at the edge of the Burgstallwald. It dates back to 1875 and is about 3000 square meters in size.

Together those  of the Jewish faith in Gunzenhausen and the neighboring villages Cronheim, Heidenheim, and Markt Berolzheim  acquired the current property and created their own cemetery. It was dedicated by the district rabbi from Ansbach on August 26, 1875. The Jewish congregation gathered at the Synagogue at 7:00 am and after the morning service walked two by two to the new burial site. After the prayer  they circled the site three times and it was solemnly dedicated.

The congregation was required to fast till noon on this festive day, per Stadtkämmerer (Chamberlain, treasurer) Maurer.

The Jewish religious community of Bavaria offers further information on this cemetery's history: http://ikg-bayern.de/rsfr_1.html

The building contractor Frosch from Gunzenhausen built the Tahara House with the prayer room. In these rooms the dead were cleansed and prepared for burial, and guarded till the burial, which was supposed to take place the following day, if possible. At the grave the “Hesped”, (funeral oration) was spoken. The Theilheimer family descendents have sent us the oration texts of their parent’s funerals. One of them can be found here.

In the Jewish religion the grave stone/monument is of great importance. Since there was no Jewish stonemason in Gunzenhausen, Heinrich Fuchs was often commissioned to make them. He was a Christian stonemason who had learned the Hebrew script so that he could carve the characters often desired into the stones.

In the photo (©City Archives) you can see him standing in his workshop next to the gravestone of Jakob Rosenfelder (1825-1901). This gravestone was destroyed when the cemetery was desecrated in November 1938 and can therefore no longer be seen there today.

Headstones are often inscribed with symbols that tell about the meaning of the deceased’s life. Unfortunately on the gravestones in the Gunzenhausen cemetery the symbols of the “blessing hands” or the “ram’s horn” are a rarety .

The reason for that may be,that no Rabbi is buried here, or else, that no headstone/monument of that type exists anymore. In December of 1929 the cemetery had already been vandalized, when 18 headstones were toppled or smashed.

Dr. Hahn mailed us a newspaper article from 1930 which refers to that incident. It was also reported not only in the “Altmühl Bote”, but also in the Regional Jewish Central-Association-Publication.

At that time the Jewish Community offered a reward of 500 Reichsmark for the apprehension of the perpetrators, but the city offered 100 RM as well.

The search for the perpetrators was unsuccessful, even though everybody knew where to look for them.

In 1938 the cemetery in Gunzenhausen was again targeted, this time  by the National Socialists  (Nazis), who on the night of the Pogrom destroyed most of it, demolishing the headstones or even carrying them off.

By now, nobody dared to offer a reward toward the discovery of the offenders.

The desecration of the headstones and graves is always an unforgivable disturbance of the peace of the departed. These misdeeds hit the Jewish believers  particularly hard, because the cemetery is to them the “House of Eternity” where the departed would rest undisturbed (peacefully) forever.

It is the place of everlasting rest (peace) till the end of time, and the location for the timeless and intimate connection of the Jews with their tradition and history, as written by Renate Khoschlessan in her “History of Jewish Cemeteries”. Jewish cemeteries however are not places of sadness, and that is why in the Hebrew language they are called “House of Life” or “House of Eternity”. The departed are honored as “those who lived” who continue to exist  because of their immortal souls, therefore live forever. In the Yiddish language the cemetery is called the “Good Place".

Any disturbance of the peace of the departed also effects the immortal soul, because the body in the grave remains forever connected to the hereafter. The grave rightfully belongs to the departed, it cannot ever be sold. The cemetery is an honorary gathering place for the living, for memories and prayers. Even if they are no longer in use, they continue to function with those purposes. Therefore it would be incorrect to speak of a “former Jewish cemetery”.

Over time the headstones can sink completely into the ground. But unlike in the Christian cemeteries, nobody can ever be buried in the same space. Relatives visit the graves regularly and leave a small stone behind as a sign of reverence and remembrance. At the burial sites of prominent Rabbis visitors may leave a note under the stone, on which they may have written a request for the Rabbi to present to God.

The guest book begins with this entry:
Ludwig Waldmann, formerly a confectioner in Gunzenhausen, now living in Herzlia in Israel, recently spent several days in his home town and also visited the Jewish cemetery where his parents were buried. But the ground over their graves had been leveled.

Mr. Waldmann has provided the guest book, which is entrusted to the cemetery caretaker. It is hoped that all members of the former “Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Gunzenhausen” who visit the cemetery will enter their names and addresses in the book. The community hopes that contacts can be re-established. Mr. Waldmann himself started the book with his own entry.

Unfortunately not all names can be deciphered, but we believe that Mr. Waldmann would approve our publishing the names of those who have signed in and their current country of residence:

Unfortunately not all visitors entered their names in the guest book. They were probably not aware of it's existence.

We have taken a photo of each of the gravestones that were in reasonably good condition, and added the names of those that we could decipher.

Research results from city archivist Werner Mühlhäußer.

City archivist Werner Mühlhäußer has been researching the history of the former Jewish community in Gunzenhausen for many years. One of the results of this work is the comprehensive documentation 'Jews in Gunzenhausen', consisting of numerous individual biographies of Jewish inhabitants between the 15th century and the final expulsion in 1939. Together with his research results on a Gunzenhausen house book, these two documentations formed the basis for the project 'Jewish Life in Gunzenhausen' of the Stephani School.

For some time now, he has devoted himself to researching the history of the two Jewish cemeteries in Gunzenhausen. The first existed from the Middle Ages until its destruction in the 1560s at the Nürnberger Straße. Relatively few historical documents exist about it.

The starting point for the second Jewish cemetery, built in 1875 on Leonhardsruhstraße, is different. Mühlhäußer found significant file material on this in the Gunzenhausen City Archives, the Nuremberg State Archives, the archives of the Association of Jewish Religious Communities in Bavaria in Munich and in The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People Jerusalem.

Mühlhäußer placed the special focus of his research on the determination of the persons buried in the cemetery. After the expulsion of the Jewish population from Gunzenhausen, the local National Socialist rulers massively desecrated the cemetery grounds. The grave monuments were removed and sold to various

stonemasonry companies, and the area was partly used for agriculture or as a prisoner of war camp. Towards the end of the Second World War, almost nothing reminded of its original use.

Already in July 1945, the local American military government ordered the immediate restoration of the Israelite cemetery. However, only a fraction of the gravestones sold could be secured.

As a result, knowledge and memory of the people buried in the cemetery disappeared and the perpetual rest period of the dead in the cemetery, which is firmly anchored in the Jewish faith, was significantly violated.

Werner Mühlhäußer was able to identify almost 300 people by name, most of whom came from Gunzenhausen, but also from Heidenheim or Altenmuhr and found their last resting place in the Jewish cemetery of Gunzenhausen. Thus it is possible to snatch them from oblivion.

It is planned to publish the results of this research, along with short biographies of the deceased, numerous illustrations of historical documents and photographs.

In addition, a plaque with the names of the buried could be put up in the entrance area of the Jewish cemetery. Descendants of the former Jewish inhabitants of Gunzenhausen, who today live scattered all over the world, often visit the place of origin of their ancestors, but rarely find a gravestone of their relatives in the cemetery.

Thought book and blackboard, could represent further mosaic pieces of the local culture of remembrance and relationship, which has been successfully cultivated in recent years between Gunzenhausen and the descendants of its expelled Jewish fellow citizens.