51°58' N, 12°05' E, 67 miles SW of Berlin, 22 miles SE Magdeburg in Anhalt-Bitterfeld district, Saxony-Anhalt. Jewish population: 122 (in 1833), ~95 (in 1933). On July 1, 2006, the town of Zerbst was renamed Zerbst/Anhalt. A year later, on July 1, 2007, the city of Zerbst/Anhalt was incorporated together with several other municipalities of the Zerbst administrative district, making the renewed Anhalt-Bitterfeld administrative district with its capital at Köthen.
Town history in Wikipedia."In the later part of the Second World War a Nazi labour camp was established on the edge of the military airfield, housing so-called 'First Degree Hybrids' and 'Jüdisch Versippte' (i.e., people with some Jewish blood, enough in Nazi terms to justify badly mistreating them but not killing them outright). 700 inmates from there were used for hard labour in road and airport construction as well as peat digging." [August 2012]
"A Judenwinkel (Jewish lane), which contained houses owned by both Jews and Christians, was mentioned in 1324. Shortly afterward, the Jews seemed to have been forced to move to the east side of the street, where they rented their homes from Christian landlords. A street once named Keverstrasse (kever = Heb. "grave"), situated outside the original city walls, may have received its name from a Jewish cemetery. After the establishment of the duchy of Zerbst-Anhalt in 1603, the dukes granted letters of protection to Jewish merchants. The modern community, founded in the mid-19th century, numbered 81 in 1880; 120 in 1932; 95 in 1933; but only 36 on September 1, 1939. It maintained a synagogue, cemetery, and school. During World War II, two forced labor camps were erected in the vicinity. In 1942, 34 of the 36 remaining Jews were deported to the east. A plaque commemorates the destroyed synagogue and the former Jewish community. Another plaque, in the Jewish cemetery, honors the victims of Kristallnacht." Source: Jewish Virtual Library [August 2016]
- Germania Judaica, 2 (1968), 939-40; 3 (1987), 1718-19; PK Germanyah.
- B. Bugaiski, I. Leubauer, and G. Waesche, Geschichte der juedischen Gemeinden in Sachsen-Anhalt. Versuch einer Erinnerung (1997), 286-91;
- W. Binger (ed.), Gedenkorte fuer die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus in Sachsen-Anhalt (1998), 62.
- Encyclopedia of Jewish Life (2001), p. 1503: "Zerbst".
- JewishGen GerSIG
- Zerbst/Anhalt; Jewish Community Collection, 1792-1933 [August 2016]
- Jewish Encyclopedia section on Zerbst.
Cemetery: 39261 Saxony-Anhalt (Gerz, Peters). Gruene Str.