DISTRICT: Wetteraukreis.
LOCATION OF CEMETERY:
- On the Obere Illereicher Strasse on a wooded hillock near the entrance to the village of Illereichen, coming from Altenstadt.
IN USE: From about 1719 until 1942
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: latest count 233.
DOCUMENTATION:
- Numerous individual gravestone photographs and general cemetery views in Alemannia Judiaca.
-
History and cemetery photograph in Netzwerk Historische Synagogenorte in Bayrisch-Schwaben and click on named location.
PUBLICATIONS:
- History of community in Schwierz - refer to Sources below.
NOTES:
- This cemetery was extended in 1785 and again in 1867 A solid surrounding stone wall was built in 1928, including an entrance gate.
- A new mortuary was ceremoniously dedicated on the 20th January 1929.
- An old and large information board is along the inside of the wall near the entrance gate, recording the history of the cemetery.
- There is a commemorative plaque honouring the local fallen Jewish soldiers in the Franco-German war of 1870-71 and also those who died in WW1. Another memorial plaque, erected in 1992, is dedicated to the memory of the Altenstadt Jewish victims who were deported and murdered during the Nazi era..
- This cemetery also served as a collective burial place for Jewish communities in the other surrounding areas, including Bechhofen and Schnaittach in Central Franconia , Kleinbardorf and Laudenbach on the river Main, Allersheim in Lower Franconia, Bödigheim-Buchen in Baden-Württemberg and Altengronau in Hesse, in addition to many others.
- The first case of vandalism of this cemetery occurred in June 1924.
- A translated inscription in Hebrew above the entrance gate reads: For the Born to die - for the Dead to live"
SOURCE: Alemannia Judaica and Schwierz, pages 243-244 (LBI).
(Researched and translated from German July 2009)