DISTRICT: Lichtenfels.
LOCATION OF CEMETERY:
- Follow the road from Burgkunstadt to Ebneth. Make a left abt.2/3rd mile after Burgkunstadt city limit immediately in front of woods onto to a lane which, after 200 yds, leads directly to the cemetery entrance (Detail).
IN USE: From around 1620 and extended in 1679 until 1942 (last burial).
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES:
- In excess of 2000 gravestones, of which the oldest established date is from 1623.
DOCUMENTATION:
- Numerous individual gravestone photographs and general cemetery views in Alemannia Judiaca.
PUBLICATIONS:
- In Schwierz - refer to Sources below.
- Michael Trüger: Der jüdische Friedhof von Burgkunstadt, publ. Der Landesverband der Israelitischen. Kultusgemeinden in Bayern. 11. Jahrgang Nr. 69 in April 1996 pages, page 19.
- Josef Motschmann & Siegfried Rudolph: "Guter Ort" ueber dem Maintal : der juedische Friedhof bei Burgkunstadt; mit einem Beitrag von Guenter Dippold ueber die benachbarten juedischen Friedhoefe, 149 pages, publ. Kommissionsverlag H. O. Schulze,Lichtenfels,1999 (LBI).
- Klaus Guth with the collaboration of Eva Groiss-Lau and Ulrike Krzywinski : Juedische Landgemeinden in Oberfranken (1800-1942): ein historisch-topographisches Handbuch , 416 pages - Burgkunstadt cemetery pages 76-77 publ.Bayerische Verlagsanstalt, Bamberg 1988 (LBI).
- Adolf Diamant: Juedische Friedhoefe in Deutschland - eine Bestandsaufnahme, publ. Adolf Diamant Frankfurt am Main1982, 248 pages (LBI).
NOTES:
- This cemetery, under the authority of successive Burgkunstadt Rabbis, was the collective cemetery for Jewish communities in the Upper Main area, which included Burgkunstadt, Maineck, Friesen, Redwitz, Altenkunstadt, Rothwind, Fassoldshof, Ebneth, Oberlangenstadt (from 1832), Küps (from 1832), Horb am Main, Hochstadt, Mistelfeld, Seubelsdorf, Kulmbach, Bayreuth (up to 1787), and also for Lichtenfels (up to 1840).
- The cemetery is enclosed by a solid stone wall with a wrought iron gate. It also contains a mortuary and a well. There are three cemetery sections: the northern and north-western section holds the oldest graves dating back to the 17th century, to the right of the entrance are gravestones from the 19th century, whilst those to the left date from the more recent past, post 1900.
- Desecration took place during the Nazi era in 1937 when 17 gravestones were toppled but repaired and re-positioned after 1945. Similar desecrations took place in 1938, in 1959 and in 1970. But by far the most serious case of vandalism happened on 24 February 1973, when no fewer than around 600 gravestones were toppled. The culprits were said to have been drunken youths.
SOURCES: Alemannia Judaica, Schwierz, pages 211-212 (LBI) and Adolf Diamant (above).
(Researched and translated from German August 2009).