ALTERNATE NAMES: KIRCHEN [GER], EFRINGEN-KIRCHEN, 47°39′20″N 7°33′57″E :a municipality in Landkreis Lörrach, SW Baden, on the border with France. Jewish population: 192 (in 1873), 60 (in 1933).
- Encyclopedia of Jewish Life (2001), p. 627: "Kirchen".
- Pinkas HaKehilot, Germany, Vol. 2 (1986), p. 478: "Kirchen"
- JewishGen GerSIG
During World War I, fortifications were built at Istei and destroyed at the end of the war. In 1936 plans were drawn up to turn the location into the "Gibraltar of the West" with two km of underground passages linking gun emplacements and bunkers. The site was to host an underground garage for over 100 tanks, 3600 men and as part of the West Wall similar to the Maginot Line fortifications. Work began in 1937 and Hermann Göring visited in the Spring of 1938. By 1939 several installations were complete but in 1940 the site remained unfinished. [Feb 2013]
79588 Baden-Württemberg
SOURCE: Gerz
DISTRICT: Lörrach
LOCATION OF CEMETERY: Alongside ‘Am Breitenstein’ (marked by arrow).
IN USE: From 1865 until 1926 (Oldest gravestone 1867).
DODUMENTATION:
- 1989 photographs of all gravestones and cemetery layout by Zentralarchiv.
- 1992 full cemetery documentation by Landesdenkmalamt (State Office for Historic Monuments) Editor : Barbara Döpp.
- History by Kahn 1963, pages 6-7.
- Photographic overall view of cemetery by Hundsnurscher/Taddey 1968, figure # 40.
- Photographic overall view of cemetery by Theobald 1984, page 92.
- History, burial register and cemetery layout by Hüttner 1993, pages 240-243. Includes photographs of selected gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions and selected translations.,pages 158-170.
- Prior to 1865 this Jewish community used the cemetery in Lörrach (Old cemetery) for burials (Kahn 1963, page 6.
- A commemorative plaque was fixed at the entrance gate in memory of the synagogue in Kirchen. Since 1966 there is another plaque near the entrance gate in memory of Kirchen’s victims of Nazi tyranny between 1933 and 1945.
- The cemetery was defiled several times in the post-war period, in 1965, 1973, 1977 and in 2003, when 45 gravestones were toppled and many destroyed (Hüttner 1993, page 169).
- Numerous photographs of gravestones and other cemetery views in Alemannia Judaica.
SOURCES: University of Heidelberg and Alemannia Judiaca.
[[Researched and translated from German January 2008]
To see information and photographs of individual gravestones in cemeteries in Baden-Wuerttemberg, click on this link and follow the directions on that page.