EPPINGEN: Heilbronn distric

49 ° 08 'N, 08 ° 55' E, Stuttgart region, NW of Baden-Württemberg in Heilbronn district, n the Kraichgau, a hilly region in SW Germany, close to the confluence of the Elsenz and Hilsbach Rivers.. 1900 Jewish population: 124. Juedishes life Kraichgau, History of the Jews and their families Eppinger (Epping, 2006). The Old Synagogue in Küfergasse was built in 1731 and used until the 1870s when the Jewish community built a new synagogue. The old one was sold and became a private home. The ground floor is built from stone, the upper storeys timberframe. The ground floor still contains the 18th century mikveh visible through the iron gate.. On the doorframe of the main entrance, the slot is still visible where the mesusah used to be. The building survived the Nazi era unharmed due to the then owner, who covered the chuppah (wedding stone) with a wooden shutter and repeatedly pretended it was just a cellar window.

• Encyclopedia of Jewish Life (2001), p. 366: "Epping".
• Pinkas HaKehilot , Germany, Vol 2 (1986), p. 248: "Epping"
• JewishGen GerSIG

Cemetery photos. [Feb 2013]

75031 Baden-Württemberg
DISTRICT: Heilbronn
SOURCE: Gerz and Peters
LOCATION OF CEMETERY: "grosser Hellberg" , Weinbrennerstrasse.
IN USE: From 1819 until 1939.
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 708
DOCUMENTATION:

• 1983 – 1987 in Eppingen (photographs of all gravestones, copies of all inscriptions and cemetery layout).
• 1986 photographs of all gravestones and cemetery layout by Zentralarchiv.

• General photographic view of cemetery in Hundsnurscher/Taddey 1968, figures # 52 and 53.
• General photographic view of cemetery in Theobald 1984, page 93.
• History by Hauke 1983.
• History by Angerbauer 1986, page 63.
• History by Kiehnle 1985, pages 156-160.
• Complete cemetery documentation by Eppingen 1989 (with only about half of all gravestone photographs reproduced).
• History by Eppingen 2006, page 16.
• Numerous photographs of gravestones and cemetery views in Alemannia Judaica.
• History, detailed cemetery layout and photographs in „Jüdischer Friedhof in Eppingen“.
• History of the Eppingen Jewish community in „Jüdisches Leben in Kraichgau“.

• Prior to having their own cemetery in 1819, the Eppingen Jewish community used the cemeteries in Oberöwisheim and Heinsheim for burials (Hahn 1988, page 225). After 1819 this cemetery was also used by other Jewish communities in the surrounding area.
• At the entrance to the cemetery is a commemorative plaque honouring Jewish soldiers from Eppingen, Gemmingen, Mühlbach and Richen, who had lost their lives during WW1. In addition a new commemorative plaque “Siehe, der Stein schreit aus der Mauer” is in place together with fragments of old gravestones set in concrete.
• The Eppingen cemetery was repeatedly desecrated during its existence (Eppingen 1989, pages 36-37). By order of the military government work on the reconstruction of the cemetery was undertaken in October 1945 (Eppingen 1989, page 37-38). The worst vandalism occurred in October 1982, when 50 gravestones were destroyed (Eppingen 1989, page 39).

SOURCE: University of Heidelberg , Alemannia Judaica and Kraichgau Projekt Group
[[Researched and translated from German February 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.