International Jewish Cemetery Project
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies

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BAMBERG : 96052,  Bavaria, Upper Franconia  (Gerz, Peters).

DISTRICT: Urban District.

LOCATION OF CEMETERY: Hallstadter Strasse, within he city cemetery (Detail).

IN USE: From 1851 until the present day.

NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: Approximately 1100 graves.

DOCUMENTATION:

  • Numerous individual gravestone photographs and general cemetery views in Alemannia Judiaca.

PUBLICATIONS:

  • In Schwierz - refer to Sources below.
  • Website link: Juden in Bamberg.
  • Herbert Loebl: Juden in Bamberg : die Jahrzehnte vor dem Holocaust publ. Verlag Fraenkischer Tag,1999 360 pages, ill.LBI). The Leo Baeck Institute NY also holds several other relevant publications listed individually in LBI.

NOTES:

  • The earliest reference to the existence of a Jewish community in Bamberg was in 1096, followed by repeated pogroms, expulsions and returns. A cemetery dating back to the Middle Ages was established in the 14th century, extended in 1407,which was located what is now behind Untere Sandstrasse 29. It was totally demolished after 1478. 29 old gravestones found there during construction work between 1960-1965 were later used turned upside down as paving slabs.
  • The Bamberg Jewish comminity used the cemetery in in Zeckendorf for burials during the 16th century and that in Walsdorf during the 18th/19th century.
  • [UPDATE] Facebook page detailing Bamberg citizens' burials in Walsdorf [March 2018]
  • The present cemetery was dedicated in 1851 and a mortuary was erected in 1890.
  • During WW2 the mortuary was leased by the city authority to a commercial organisation for metal storage. Post 1945 the mortuary was returned to the Bamberg Jewish community and renovated between 1993 and 1997. It is now under a preservation order. A permanent exhibition by the city's town archives is in the mortuary building on the theme Juden in Bamberg depicting varied aspects Jewish life in Bamberg prior to 1938.
  • The cemetery contains a memorial stone dedicated by the Jewish community of Bamberg to the victims of the Nazi era 1933-1945. In addition, there are also several gravestones dedicated to the memory of individual Jewish soldiers from the Bamberg community who fell during WW1.
  • The cemetery is kept in excellent condition.

SOURCE: Alemannia Judaica and Schwierz, pages 206-210 (LBI).

(Researched and translated from German August 2009)