Cemeteries in Frankfurt

Batton Strasse

RatBeilStrasse

Administration

Neuer Friedhof Eckenheimerlandstr.238

Telefon: + 49 69 768036 790

Fax: + 49 69 768036 799

Mr. Majer Szanckower ( Office-Manager)

e - mail : friedhof@jg-ffm.de

Cemeteries

Frankfurt am Main (Hessen)

NOTE: The small cemeteries in the suburbs are closed; keys can be obtained from: Verwaltung des Juedischen Friedhofs, Eckenheimer Landstrasse 238

The small local Jewish cemeteries in Frankfurt have not been documented. Some have no gravestones left standing. The cemetery in the neighborhood of Bockenheim is one of the largest of those with remaining gravestones. Bockenheim has about 300 gravestones.

1) Battonnstrasse: oldest 11,850 qm The old Jewish Cemetery of Frankfurt am Main Pictures
Used: 1270 - 1828: Battonnstrasse, located between Battonnstrasse and Rechneigrabenstrasse; 11850 qm; ca.7000 graves; In 1942, the gravestones were piled up and about two thirds of them were demolished. 175 stones of particular historical and artistic interest were moved to the cemetery Rat-Beil-Strasse; after the war, they were returned and (since their original location was unknown) placed along the wall and in a small "fieldof honor", which contains, among others, the gravestones of Mayer Amschel Rothschild and several famous rabbis. The Nazis destroyed many of those graves during WWII. 2,000-2,500 gravestones remain standing as the Nazis were interrupting by allied bombing in the middle of their dirty work. The director of the Historical Museum, a gentile, was able to hide and save 175 gravestones of the most historical and artistic value. From 1725-1774 there were about 9,000 burials so one can note that many of those buried probably had no gravestones; among them children, babies, the poor (including beggars) and strangers (people who had no protection and wandered from one community to another; many were peddlers). From 1828/30 - 1869 all documented information is lost although the graves are still standing at the Rat-Beil-Strasse Cemetery, waiting for funds and someone to do the work.

From the World Jewish Congress' Dateline, July 1996: "A 1,000- foot wall, inscribed with the names of Frankfurt Jews murdered during the Holocaust, has been unveiled at the city's ancient Jewish cemetery. The wall lists 11,134 victims, and remains of some of the city's synagogues, destroyed by the Germans, have been placed alongside the remembrance wall."

book:
Der alte Juedische Friedhof zu Frankfurt am Main, Michael Lenarz, published in the name of the Magistrate of the City of Frankfurt am Main, Dezernat fuer Kultur und Freiheit - George Heuberger, 1996 This 34 page booklet gives a short history of the old cemetery on the Batton Strasse, has pictures of some of the stones and a map of the cemetery identifying special areas and location of stones of important persons.

book:
Der alte Judenfriedhof in Frankfurt a.M, by Julius Hulsen, (1844-1910) (DS135.g4 f685771 1932, 2d ed.) Sefer avne zikaron: ha-ktav veha-mikhtav mi-bet ha-kevarotha-yashan dk.k.Published: veranknurt. `al Nehar Moin: Koyfmann, 1901 `im hakdamah ve-he`arot / me'et Mordekhai ha-Levi Horovits. Added title page: Die Inschriften des alten Friedhofs der Israelitischen Gemeinde zu Frankfurt a.M. Introduction & notes in German. Includes index. (DS135.G4 68551) and at LBI ID # GT 3250 F72 H8 source: LBI not in DRA

book:
Der alte juedische Friedhof zu Frankfurt am Main, 2745, BR, 1/2/1997, LENARZ Michael, title:, , Juedisches Museum Frankfurt am Main,, 1996, 34 p.,German; source: DD

Grabinschriften des alten Judenfriedhofs in Frankfurt am Main; eine Auswahl - Texte, Kurzbiographien und Uebersetzungen, by Arno Lustiger. Frankfurt/M.: Kirchheimsche Stiftung 1984, 10 pp.

2) Bergen-Enkheim (Am Berger Galgen): {10856} Pictures
Click to see a picture of this cemetery.
180 qm

3) Bergen-Enkheim (Am Weissen Turm): 1,731 qmPicturesBilder
Location: behind houses 2-16; access from Ludwig-Klemann-Weg; used until World War I. Bergen. Vilbeler Landstrasse, opposite Am Galgen; about 10 gravestones used until after 1933.

4) Bockenheim (Sophienstrasse): 1,641 qm; used until WWI.; about 300 tombstones left Pictures

5) Eckenheimer Landstrasse (Also called the New Jewish Cemetery-Neuer Jüdischer Friedhof) Pictures
54,532 square meters; over 7000 graves (as of 1985); used: 1929-present. (This is the primary cemetery in Frankfurt still in use.) In 1929 the New Jewish Cemetery was opened (the main entrance is on Eckenheimer Landstrasse). From 1929 - 1956 (31 December 1956), there were 4,456 burials. Covering the years 1869 - 1956 are 3 large volumes of names (death registers). Each volume has about 250 pages. At the end of each year it gives a total number of deaths for that year. We also have permission to copy these registers. These do not include Orthodox deaths. Documentation of this cemetery is now being worked on by the Jewish Museum. In addition there is a drawn up plan/layout of the Orthodox cemetery in Mr. Szanckower's office with the last names of those buried filling in the rectangles.

To see the layout of the cemetery, click here

Mr. Szanckower is the caretaker of the Jewish cemetery and his office is located inside the gate by the entrance to the New Jewish Cemetery on - - > "Neuer Juedischer Friedhof " Eckenheimer Landstr.238 e - mail : friedhof@jg-ffm.de

6) Griesheim: 200 qm Pictures
Heinrich-Hardt-Strasse, next to the Christian cemetery Waldschulstrasse; contains about 40 gravestones from the old cemetery (used since 1780), which was bought by "Chemische Fabrik Griesheim" (later "IG Farben") and had to be cleared in 1897.

7) Heddernheim: 1,753 qm (In Roemerstadt, Rosa-Luxemburg-Str.)
Ort. Heddemheim. In der Roemerstadt, near Rosa-Luxemburg- Strasse; used from 1827, contains some gravestones from the old cemetery (1376-1827) located at what is now Alt-Heddernheim 9. Bilder

8) Niederursel (Alter Friedhof): 1,084 qm Pictures

9) Niederursel (Neuer Friedhof): 818 qm Pictures

10) Rat-Beil-Strasse (Including Religionsfriedhof): 73,831 qm Pictures
Used: 1828 - 1929: However there were occassional burials there after that date until even the 1993. Often refered to as the "old cemetery".

To see the layout of the cemetery, click here

Rat-Beil-Strasse is next to the municipal cemetery; 73831 qm; ca.30-40,000 graves; used 1828-1929. (From 1886, R. Samson Raphael Hirsch's congregation "Israelitische Religions- Gesellschaft" had a separate burial field in the center of the cemetery.) (Sometimes refered to as orthodox.) Here "orthodox" refers strictly to those persons buried in the separate section of the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft) founded by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch). The orthodox (or Tora-Tue) people of the general Jewish community (Kehilla) were called "conservative" which has no resemblance in any way to the definition of "conservative" as it is used here in the USA.
source: Arthur Levi; e-mail: a72levi@mail.map.com

Documentation of this cemetery is now being worked on by the Jewish Museum. In addition there is a drawn up plan/layout of the Orthodox cemetery in Mr. Szanckower's office with the last names of those buried filling in the rectangles. To give you an idea of the numbers; from 1869 until 31 December 1918 there were 14,112 non-Orthodox deaths registered. It is estimated that there were altogether 26,400 deaths before 1869. In 1922 for example, there were 359 burials. In 1923; 327. This number rose to about 500 deaths per year in the late 30's until the deportations took place. This was not only due to increased violence and suicide, but also to the influx of Jews from the countryside (smaller towns and villages), and may include Buchenwald deaths.

book: {10812}
(Just a few names that were in the book as an example.) Die juedischen Friedhoefe in Frankfurt by Valentin Senger & Klaus Meier-Ude. Frankfurt/M.: Kramer 1985, ISBN 3-7829-0298-X, 99 pp. [brief history of the cemeteries, many photos; lists 20 prominent Jews buried in the cemetery Rat-Beil-Strasse, with some biographical information and a cem. diagram showing numbering of burial fields and locations of the graves mentioned; One page (71) lists 250 names in section 57. no index. (DS135.G4 F717 1985) and at LBI ID # GT 3250 F72 J84 source: LBI

11) Roedelheim (Zentmarkweg): 2,724 qm Pictures Roedelheim: Seegewann (end of street); about 20 gravestones, including those of the printers Heidenheim and Baschwitz. Oldest gravestones from 1740.

12) Roedelheim (Westerbachstrasse): 1,493 qm Pictures

13) Sophienstr.

14) Ot. Niederursel/Urselbachtal: Pictures
In addition there are remnants of two cemeteries in Niederursel (both on Oberurseler Weg) and memorial stones for a Jewish cemetery within the Christian cemetery in Rodelheim Westerbachstrasse).

General books about Frankfurt cemeteries

Wenn keine Stimme sich fur uns erhebt, so moegen die Steine dieser Stadt fuer uns zeugen; Juedische Friedhoefe - Grabsteine als Zeugen der Geschichte. [Jewish cem: tombstones as witnesses to history] by Angelika Rieber. In: "Ich bin kein deutscher Patriot mehr, jetzt bin ich Jude"; die Vertreibung juedischer Buerger aus Wiesbaden (1933 bis 1947) ed by Lothar Bembenek & Horst Dickel. Frankfurt/M.: Diesterweg (Materialien zum Unterricht, Sekundarstufe I, Heft 107), ISBN 3-88327-253-3, 129-193 source: DNB

Grabinschriften des alten Judenfriedhofs in Frankfurt am Main eine Auswahl - Texte, Kurzbiographien und Uebersetzungen, by Arno Lustiger. Frankfurt/M.: Kirchheimsche Stiftung 1984, 10 pp.

Durch Freitod aus dem Leben geschiedene Frankfurter Juden, 1938-1943/ [von Adolf] Diamant. Frankfurt am Main: Selbstverlag, 1983. v, 16 p. 24 cm. vital statistics and cemeteries; ID # DS 135 G4 F7 D52 source: LBI

Friedhofs- und Begraebnissordnung der israelitischen Religionsgesellschaft in Frankfurt A. M./ Frankfurt am Main: 189-? 8 p. 20 cm. AND 1913 ID # BM 318 F68 A5 source: LBI

An additional source for Frankfurt, but which does not specify a cemetery is Ettlinger's work. Ettlinger, a Frankfurt lawyer and genealogist, prepared data sheets (his life's work) on each of the names from Frankfurt's Memorial Book(s). Unfortunately the Memorial Book(s) were destroyed during the war, but Ettlinger's work remains. He documented the burials that were listed from about 1200, up until 1830. These contain fantastic genealogical data. His work makes many corrections to Horovitz's work. There are 12 volumes of about 1,000 pages each. (Totaling up to about 12,000 names). The Jewish Museum has given me permission to copy the pages. The three copies of this exist in 1. Frankfurt, 2. LBI (Leo Baeck Institute, 3. Jerusalem

PicturesBilder	Pictures"Jewish Lane" (Boerne Street) Bilder"Judengasse" (Boernestrasse) Jewish Quarter
Cemetery Boerneplatz