CELLE: 29223 Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) (Gerz, Peters).
DISTRICT: Celle.
LOCATION OF CEMETERY:
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In 1692 outside the Hehlentor, from 1704 between Am Berge and Hügelstrasse.
IN USE: From 1692 until 1953.
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 288.
DOCUMENTATION:
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1974-92 photographs, copies of inscriptions with translations of all gravestones by Bar-Giora Bamberger, in cooperation with the city of Celle.
PUBLICATIONS:
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Naftali Bar-Giora Bamberger: Der jüdische Friedhof in Celle - Memor-Buch BET HA-KEVAROT HA-YEHUDI BE-TSELLEH publ. Heidelberg, C. Winter [c1992], 231 pages illust.,maps, tables (LBI).
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History in Celle 1974, pages, 47-54.
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Complete documentation by Bamberger 1992.
NOTES:
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The low fenced-in area of the cemetery acquired in 1704 was enlarged in 1741 and again in 1758, which included a half-timbered dwelling for a caretaker. This building was renovated in 1879. At the same time a hearse was purchased. A replacement for the original wattle fence by a high, gated wall was started in 1885 and continued through 1904. The cemetery was enlarged in 1879. A domed mortuary was built in 1910/11.
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The mortuary was demolished during Kristallnacht (9/10 November 1938) but damage to the gravestones was prevented by the non-Jewish caretaker, August Schmidt. He still maintained 11 graves in 1940. The cemetery was compulsorily acquired by the city authority in September 1944.
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In 1947 nearly 500 displaced Jews, mostly concentration camp survivors from Silesia and Poland, lived in Celle.
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Cemetery reconstruction was undertaken in 1951 and ownership transferred to the Jewish Trust Cooperation. The Association of Jewish Communities in Lower Saxony became the legal owners in 1959.
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The cemetery was vandalised 3 times between 1962 and 1970 and again in 1985. A 7-year old boy was killed in 1966 by a toppling gravestone whilst playing, because the cemetery had become completely neglected. The dilapidated small prayer house and the caretaker's dwelling were demolished in 1974.
SOURCE: University of Heidelberg, Historisches Handbuch, pages 394-421 (DNB).
(Researched and translated from German June 2009)