Kraichtal is a town in NE Karlsruhe district merging nine smaller municipalities in 1971: Bahnbrücken, Gochsheim (Baden), Landshausen, Menzingen (Baden), Münzesheim, Neuenbürg (Baden), Oberöwisheim, Oberacker, and Unteröwisheim. Kraichtal is a hilly German town in western Kraichgau between the Black Forest, Odenwald forest and the River Neckar. Kraichtal (literally Kraich Valley) got its name from the River Kraich, which flows through Kraichtal, and eventually into the Rhine.. KRAICHTAL incorporates OBERÖWISHEIM (Oberoewisheim) and NEUENBÜRG (Neuenbuerg). 49°09' N 8°44' E, 309.4 miles SW of Berlin .
JEWISH CEMETERY:
Although no Jews lived in Oberöwisheim the cemetery probably existed there since 1629, however, at first Jews were buried in Kraichgau. After 1933, a burial place for the Jewish communities Menzingen , Münzesheim and Odenheim (last burial in 1938). The cemetery is located on the slope of the "Reimenhälden" (parcel 3388, area 91.35 a) near the road to Neuenbürg.The desecration of the cemetery was in late 1931. Complete cemetery history and photo and story of 2011 gravestone returned to the cemetery: www.alemannia-judaica.de , Dr. Joachim Hahn [Mar 2013]
76703 Baden-Württemberg (Gerz, Peters)
LOCATION OF 2 CEMETERIES: 1. Flur Reimenhälden and 2. Neuenbürg
- 1. Oberöwisheim (Detail - bottom left arrow) Flur Reimenhälden
IN USE: Dedicated in 1629 until 1938 (last burial).
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 492. Oldest identifiable gravestone date 1735.
DOCUMENTATION:
- 1987 photographs of all gravestones with cemetery layout by Zentralarchiv.
- 1988 translation of gravestone inscriptions from these photographs and burial register by Zentralarchiv, ed.: Karol Sidon).
- Alphabetical burial register by Zentralarchiv.
- Numerous individual gravestone and general cemetery photographs by Alemannia Judaica.
- History by Zumbach 1929.
- Photographic overview by Hundsnurscher/Taddey 1968, fig.#. 164.
- History and burial register by Zumbach/Walter 1973.
- History Page 79, photographic overview page 100 by Theobald 1984.
- History by Theobald 1985 (7).
- History by Hahn 1985b, pages. 160-161.
- History by Beisel 2002, page 99.
- Although no Jews are said to have actually ever lived in Oberöwisheim, this is the place where the Jewish communities in the KREICHGAU area maintained their communal burial ground. Prior to the existence of this cemetery burials took place from 1435 onwards initially in Speyer and thereafter, following their expulsion from there, in Worms.
- This cemetery was still used after 1933 and until 1938 by the Jewish communities of Menzingen, Münzesheim and Odenheim.
- Signs of wanton desecration of this cemetery in the spring of 2003 by a number of youths were still evident six months later. See photographs in Alemannia Judaica.
- 2. Neuenbürg (Detail - top right). Section of general local cemetery.
IN USE: only in 1945.
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 7. This is the graveyard of the Jewish concentration camp detainees who returned after liberation to Neuenbürg and died there.
DOCUMENTATION:
- 1988 photographs of all gravestones with cemetery layout by Zentralarchiv.
- 1993 basic cemetery documentation including these photographs by the Office for Historic Monuments (Landesdenkmalamt ed. Monika Preuß).
- Photographs of all as well as four individual gravestones in Alemannia Judaica.
- History in Neuenbürg 1959.
- Photographic cemetery overview by Hundsnurscher/Taddey 1968, fig.# 165.
- History by Theobald 1985 (5).
- In 1945 French liberation troops took more than 500, mostly Jewish Polish, liberated detainees suffering from typhoid from the Vaihingen an der Enz concentration camp to Neuenbürg for convalescence. Seven Jewish victims died there and were buried in a special area separated by a low wooden lattice fence as part of the general local cemetery (Theobald 1985 (5)).