International Jewish Cemetery Project - Netherlands
Ashkenazi Cemetery: This fenced cemetery adjoining the synagogue is well maintained but only a handful of stones remain. Used 1740-1942, the maximum burials was 250 in 1942. One prominent name is Poppers from the 1800s. Source: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Jewish cemetery today is situated along the Spoorstraat (Spoor is railway on the road to the railway station. In former times the name of the Spoorstraat was Coestege, meaning cow path. The farmers with houses in the village of Winterswijk used this path to bring their cows to the meadows outside the village. Thus, the cemetery was situated in the past outside of the village Winterswijk. An 1808 report about Gelderland stated that Jews did not have synagogue property of their own in the "ambt Breedevoort". They rented rooms of parts of houses to use as a sjoel or synagogue. Only the people from Winterswijk have a small piece of ground as their own property used as a cemetery. The eldest document about this cemetery is from December 28, 1691 about a piece of ground situated along the Coestege near "den Joeden Kerckhoff" [Jewish churchyard]. I found another two documents, dated In 1733 about "den Joeden Kerkhoff" in the same area. In 1774, my ancestor Arnoldus Hoitink (1725-1808) had to pay two guilders tax for "een gaarden den joeden kerkhoff genaemt". Because he was the owner of a garden named "the Jewish churchyard situated along the Coestege" he had to pay this tax. On October 26th 1808,my great-great-grandfather, Gerrit Hoitink, and his wife Johanna Geertruid Schepers (also on behalf of his brother Willem Hoitink and his sisters Johanna and Geziena Hoitink who all lived in Amsterdam) sold a piece of ground for the price of 120 guilders to the Jewish community of Winterswijk. Representatives of the Jewish community were Casper Abrahams [Caspar Abrahams was born Winterswijk 1758 and a son of Abraham Arentzen and Clara Abrahams. He was a businessman and married 1783 Susanna Seligs or Zeligs and in 1798 he married Deva Jacob Schaap.] and Nathan Benjamin. By comparison, at that time, you could buy a house for the price of 500 guilders. This cemetery (red) was used from 1808 until 1 January 1884. The Winterswijk administration wanted this cemetery closed for some unknown reason and changed the ground for a piece of ground along the Grindweg on the road to Bredevoort. D is a house. The oldest tomb stone is from 1817. There are two stones from the Ricardo family, Portuguese Jews from Amsterdam buried 1825 and 1837 and some very weather beaten stones with the names Gans en Pop. In 1887, the Jewish committee decided to build a new synagogue and therefore bought another piece of ground, near the cemetery. (See A on the map.) This Synagogue was completely restored in 1984 and for this occasion the Dutch Post issued a special stamp. There were about fifty Jews in Winterswijk in 1808. From 1795 until 1813 by the French troops of Napoleon occupied Holland. In 1812, everyone was obliged by the French authorities to choose an official family name. (Code Civil). Caspar Abrahams had 13 children and choose the name "Cohen". David Levie, Levie Abraham en Berend Abraham choose the name "Wijler". Jacob Benjamin en Levy Benjamin choose the name "van Bingen." In Dutch, this can mean he came from Bingen, a German town. Berend Salomon choose the name "Berendsen"; and Mijer Simon choose the name "Poppers". Most of these families were connected with each other. Their relatives also lived in the villages around Winterswijk, in the Netherlands, and in villages just over the German border. Source: Hans Hoitink; Bunschoten the Netherlands: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.