Cemetery of the Jewish Community of Berlin
After an absence of more than a century, a Jewish community was reestablished in Berlin. The community was granted a burial place near Oranienburger Straße at the time. Thousand of persons are said to have been buried between 1672 and 1827 on the site covering only 1.5 acres. The most famous grave is probably that of German philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, who was buried here in 1786. The gravestone has been restored several times. The cemetery was closed because of the Prussian hygiene ordinance of 1794, which prohibited burials at cemeteries in residential areas within the city walls. In 1827, a new Jewish cemetery was opened on Schönhauser Allee, but this was already too small by 1880 and the Jewish cemetery in Weißensee was opened. When the Jewish old people’s home opened in 1844, the entrance of the former cemetery was moved to Hamburger Straße. Under the Nazis rule, the old people’s home was used from 1942 by the Gestapo as a holding camp for around 55,000 Jewish inhabitants of Berlin, and it was destroyed along with the cemetery in 1943. A zigzag trench was dug through the graveyard, the bones of the dead were pulled out of the ground and the gravestones were smashed. In April 1945, 2,427 soldiers and civilians killed in street fighting were buried in mass graves at the cemetery. In 1948, the cemetery was returned to the Jewish community. Part of the site was converted to a public park in the 1970s. On the site of the destroyed old people’s home, Willi Lammert’s sculpture “Jewish Victims of Fascism” was placed next to a memorial stone. From 2007 to 2008, the site was cleaned up so that the cemetery area could be seen again. A basin for ritual hand washing was put up by the entrance and panels provide information on the cemetery and the old people’s home.
Cemetery of the Jewish Community of Berlin
After an absence of more than a century, a Jewish community was reestablished in Berlin. The community was granted a burial place near Oranienburger Straße at the time. Thousand of persons are said to have been buried between 1672 and 1827 on the site covering only 1.5 acres. The most famous grave is probably that of German philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, who was buried here in 1786. The gravestone has been restored several times. The cemetery was closed because of the Prussian hygiene ordinance of 1794, which prohibited burials at cemeteries in residential areas within the city walls. In 1827, a new Jewish cemetery was opened on Schönhauser Allee, but this was already too small by 1880 and the Jewish cemetery in Weißensee was opened. When the Jewish old people’s home opened in 1844, the entrance of the former cemetery was moved to Hamburger Straße. Under the Nazis rule, the old people’s home was used from 1942 by the Gestapo as a holding camp for around 55,000 Jewish inhabitants of Berlin, and it was destroyed along with the cemetery in 1943. A zigzag trench was dug through the graveyard, the bones of the dead were pulled out of the ground and the gravestones were smashed. In April 1945, 2,427 soldiers and civilians killed in street fighting were buried in mass graves at the cemetery. In 1948, the cemetery was returned to the Jewish community. Part of the site was converted to a public park in the 1970s. On the site of the destroyed old people’s home, Willi Lammert’s sculpture “Jewish Victims of Fascism” was placed next to a memorial stone. From 2007 to 2008, the site was cleaned up so that the cemetery area could be seen again. A basin for ritual hand washing was put up by the entrance and panels provide information on the cemetery and the old people’s home.