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Coat of arms of Oedheim 49°14' N, 09°15' E. 33 miles N of Stuttgart, in Landkreis Heilbronn.  Oedheim is a small town NW of Baden-Württemberg. Jewish population: 94 (in 1828), 15 (in 1933), and 108 (in 1853). 2008 population:  5.965 with no Jews. Jews were in Oedheim because of the Teutonic Knight, owner of the village, and the Barons Capler, owner of the castle as Wuerttemberg. 1705 documentation for the Jews shows the right to hold school and worship. Protected Jews built houses on the base of the patrons, which in 1737 was six Jewish households with 42 people in the forecourt of the castle but the German Order would tolerate only three families. The number of Jewish families increased to 1780 to 18 families. After the transition to Württemberg in 1806, a total of 84 Jews were enumerated. In March 1848, riots against Jews occurred. After 1853,  the Jewish community diminished quickly due to emigration and moving to large cities. Although services previously  had been held in various houses, the Jewish community built the synagogue Oedheim in 1864,  All Jews in Württemberg had 1,828 hereditary surnames; The family heads of Oedheimer Jews took the following names: Kaufmann (4), Rosenstein (4), Mergentheimer (3), Strauss (2), eagle (1), Up (1) Gutmann (1), Herrmann (1), Mannheim (1), Rothschild (1), Schulz (1), Seligmann (1), and Sterm (1). A Jewish family remaining in the village was mistreated,  their home demolished. In 1933, 16 Jews lived in the city, of whom eleven were able to emigrate, while five people --Anna Mannheimer and four members of the family Mergentheimer--were deported in and killed. Before 1874, they used the Neckarsulm Jewish cemetery. .The Jewish cemetery in Bautzen Forest was created in 1876 with the oldest of the 39 remaining gravestones from 1874 and the last from 1935. Devastated by explosions by SA men in 1939. He was tried after 1945,   [Mar 2013]

74229 Baden-Württemberg (Gerz, Peters).

DISTRICT: Heilbronn.
LOCATION OF CEMETERY: Oedheim, im Batzenwald (Detail).
IN USE: From 1876 until the present day. Oldest dateable gravestone 1878, most recent 1935.
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 39.
DOCUMENTATION:
  • 1988 photographs of all gravestones with mapping of graves by Zentralarchiv.
  • 1991 cemetery documentation including above photographs by the Office for Historic Monuments (Landesdenkmalamt ed. Frowald Gil Hüttenmeister).
  • Numerous photographs of individual gravestones and general cemetery views in Alemannia Judaica.
PUBLICATIONS:
NOTES:
  • This cemetery was dedicated on 19 July 1876 by the district Rabbi from Heilbronn in the presence of large numbers of Jews and non-Jews. Prior to 1876 the cemetery of Neckarsulm was used for burials (Hahn 1988, page 249).
  • The cemetery was virtually destroyed and almost obliterated in 1938 but was restored as far as possible after 1945 (Sauer 1966, page 145, Hahn 1988, page 249).
SOURCES: University of Heidelberg and Alemannia Judaica.
[Researched and translated from German August 2008]

To see information and photographs of individual gravestones in cemeteries in Baden-Wuerttemberg, click on this link and follow the directions on that page.