GROSS-GERAU: 64521 Hesse.
SOURCE: Gerz and Peters.
DISTRICT: Gross-Gerau.
LOCATION OF CEMETERIES:
- 1. Middle Ages cemetery: from around 1300 A.D. along the Berliner Strasse between the Gr�ner Weg and Hermann-L�ns-Strasse. Now empty.
- 2. Old cemetery: from 1632 was in front of the town moat which is now in the area between Darmst�dter - and Berliner Strasse. Enlarged in 648, 1659, 1703 and was closed in 1892. The City council ordered the Jewish community in November 1936 to exhume the deceased and re-bury them in a mass grave in the new Jewish cemetery. This cemetery is also empty. A commemorative plaque is now the only reminder of its former existence and the reburial.
- 3. New cemetery: from 1841 close to the swimming pool on Theodor-Heuss-Strasse.
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: about 1,200.
IN USE: from 1841 until 1938 and probably later.
HISTORY:
- Used by numerous Jewish communities in the area. According to the cemetery statutes of 1890/92 the communities and families associated with this cemetery were from: Arheilgen, Astheim, Bauschheim, Biebesheim, Bischofsheim, B�ttelborn, Crumstadt, Dornheim, Erfelden, Geinsheim, Ginsheim, Goddelau, Gross und Klein-Gerau, Gr�fenhausen, Griesheim, K�nigst�dten, Leeheim, M�rfelden, Nauheim, Raunheim, R�sselsheim, Stockstadt, Trebur, Wallerst�dten, Weiterstadt, Walldorf, Wolfskehlen und Worfelden.
NOTES:
- The first recorded vandalism occurred in the spring of 1887 and again in the spring of 1909. This cemetery was in use until 1938, when it was desecrated; the commemorative plaque in honour of the Jewish soldiers who died in WW1 was destroyed. After 1945, the City had two commemorative plaques fixed: one to replace that honoured the fallen Jewish soldiers of WW1 and another to commemorate the city�s Jewish inhabitants who lost their lives during the Nazi era. The latter was defaced in November 1953. In 1963 youths uprooted 37 gravestones.
Source: Alemannia Judaica.
[Researched and translated from German January 2008]