International Jewish Cemetery Project
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies

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PRETZFELD incorporating HAGENBACH: 91362 Bavaria, Upper Franconia (Gerz, Peters).

DISTRICT: Forchheim.

LOCATION OF CEMETERY: From Hagenbach (A) to (B).

IN USE: From 1737 until March 1934.

NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 386.

DOCUMENTATION:

PUBLICATIONS:

  • Israel Schwierz: Steinerne Zeugnisse jüdischen Lebens in Bayern - refer to Sources below.
  • Michael Trüger: Der jüdische Friedhof in Hagenbach, publ. Der Landesverband der Israelitischen. Kultusgemeinden in Bayern. 14. Jahrgang Nr. 80 September 1999 page 20(Abstract).
  • Georg Knoerlein: Juedisches Leben im Forchheimer Land publ. 1998 Medien und Dialog Klaus Schubert, Haigerloch. 18 pages, illustr. (LBI).

NOTES:

  • The existence of Jews living in Hagenbach was first recorded in 1298. They were subsequently exiled until they gradually re-established themselves as a community in the 17th century.
  • This cemetery served as a burial ground also for Jewish families living in Wannbach, Egloffstein, Wiesenthau and Mittelehrenbach. It is enclosed by an almost impenetrable natural hedge. The gate into the cemetery is unusual because of the three large stone pillars supporting a wrought-iron double gate as well as a separate single wrought-iron gate.
  • A Nazi plan in 1941 to plant mulberry bushes in the cemetery to create a silk worm farm did not materialise.
  • The cemetery is very well maintained.

SOURCE: Alemannia Judaica and Schwierz, pages 220-221 (Schwierz LBI).

(Researched and translated from German October 2009).