International Jewish Cemetery Project
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies

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LICHTENFELS, Bayr: 96215 Bavaria, Upper Franconia (Gerz, Peters).

DISTRICT: Lichtenfels.

LOCATION OF CEMETERY: An der Friedenslinde (Detail).

IN USE: From November 1840 until January 1940.

NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: Only 3 remaining gravestones.

DOCUMENTATION:

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

  • Jüdische Friedhöfe in Bayern publ. Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst - click on Friedhöfe A-Z and Lichtenfels.

PUBLICATIONS:

NOTES:

  • From the mid 17th century onwards and up to the acquisition their own burial ground in 1840, this community buried their Dead in the Burgkunstadt cemetery. The Lichtenfels cemetery was originally surrounded by a stone wall.

  • The cemetery was desecrated in March 1930 and completely destroyed during the Nazi era. By 1940 the newest section of the cemetery had been confiscated by the local authority, upon whose insistence all earthly remains of those Jews, who had previously been buried there, had to be exhumed and reburied in the cemetery of Burgkunstadt. Practically all gravestones and the old stone wall were stolen and used in local road construction purposes.

  • This cemetery is well maintained and is surrounded by a beech wood and wire mesh fencing, with a small wrought iron gate. In September 1952 a memorial stone was dedicated in honour of the 25 named Lichtenfels Jews, who were murdered by the Nazis.

SOURCE: Alemannia Judaica and Schwierz, pages 227/228 (Schwierz LBI).

(Researched and translated from German April 2010).