DISTRICT: Hameln-Pyrmont.
LOCATION OF CEMETERIES: I. Old cemetery (Bombergalle); II. New cemetery (Am Helsen).
I. Old cemetery (Bombergallee town centre).
IN USE: From 1788 until August 1934.
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 79 in 1997.
DOCUMENTATION:
- 1989/1990 photographs of 22 gravestones with translation of insciptions by Landesverband/Zentralarchiv.
- Some photographs by the Institute for the history of German Jewry (Hamburg).
- Photographs and copies of gravestone inscriptions by Bernhard Gelderblom.
- Since 1966 by Bad Pyrmont working group.
PUBLICATIONS:
- History by Rostmann 2003.
- History by Weserbergland 2003.
- History by Gelderblom.
NOTES:
- The cemetery ground was donated in 1788 by Duke Frederich zu Waldeck-Pyrmont and extended in 1832. It was closed by the order of the local Nazi mayor Zuchold in August 1934 and replaced by the new cemetery Am Helsen (below). The cemetery was destroyed during Kristallnacht in November 1938. About 120 gravestones were smashed and used for road construction. Around 80 tombstones were buried on site. A public place of remembrance and honour was created on this site in 1946 by the city of Bad Pyrmont, which included the re-erection of 22 gravestones found since 1996. This park area was officially dedicated in November 1948. There is a memorial stone with the inscription: In memory of the Jewish fellow citizens by the city of Bad Pyrmont. Based on historical records, the local, but now defunct, working group Jüdischer Friedhof reconstructed this cemetery during 1996/97. The reconstruction was undertaken by local labour financed by the city and the dig was assisted by Russian Jewish immigrants. A total of 79 tombstones have now been re-erected, of which 23 were placed along a newly constructed cemetery wall.
- Legal ownership of the cemetery was returned in November 1997 to the Association of Jewish Communities in Lower Saxony by the city of Bad Pyrmont.
SOURCES:
- University of Heidelberg; Historisches Handbuch, pages 1291-1298 (DNB) and Bernard Gelderblom.
II.New cemetery Bad Pyrmont, Am Helsen, in open country, to the north of and far outside the town, between the Langen Grund and Gut Schellenhof fields.
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 4.
DOCUMENTATION:
- 1989/1990 photographs of all gravestones with translation of insciptions by Landesverband/Zentralarchiv.
- 1990 photographs of gravestones and inscriptions by Bernhard Gelderblom.
PUBLICATIONS:
- History by Weserbergland 2003.
- History by Rostmann 2003.
- History by Gelderblom.
NOTES:
- This cemetery resulted from the enforced closure in 1934 of the earlier Bombergallee cemetery. This cemetery was also vandalised in November 1938. The only four gravestones were removed undamaged from this cemetery during the Nazi era and could therefore be re-erected after 1945, under a complete post-war cemetery restoration action.
- Legal ownership of the cemetery was returned in November 1952 to the Association of Jewish Communities in Lower Saxony by the city of Bad Pyrmont.
SOURCES:
- University of Heidelberg; Historisches Handbuch, pages 1291-1298 (DNB) and Bernard Gelderblom.
17 March 2009