HERRLISHEIM: (Hagenau arrondissement, Haut-Rhin département, Alsace région): 67850. [Offendorf ]

48° 43′ 52″ N 07° 54′ 29″ E. (German: Herlisheim) The 1999 population was 4,198. The first mention of this locality is in an act of donation at the nunnery of Wissembourg in 743, under the name of HARIOLFESVILLER. This name evolved until in the 17th century, HERLESHEYM became what is now the actual name. Various documents show that Jews lived in the village since the 17th century. However, they also mention that during the persecutions of 1349 and during the Black Plague, Jews were tortured in the locality. Then, documents mention no more their presence for about three centuries. A 1752 inventory notes thirteen Jewish families mentioned as living there since 1693. A mention in the records concerns "the Jew Läwel" who had to pay two Florins of tax for protection in 1714. In 1774, after wars devastated the région and made residents flee, the village had 257 citizens "without the Jews" (no number given). But the village recovered because in the inventories of 1821 and 1842 showed 198 residents. In 1890, 202 souls lived there. The community had a synagogue even before 18th century, demolished in 1805 and replaced with another, then that in the turn, replaced with a new one in 1850, probably replacing a previous building. This one was vandalized during WWII; only walls remained. The adjacent small prayerhouse was entirely destroyed. The synagogue and small prayerhouse were rebuilt in the 1950s. The synagogue closed its doors for the last time in 1969. photos and more information, only in French. As in several other communities of the région, burials from Herrlisheim until 1870 were in the cemetery of Haguenau. [January 2008]

JEWISH CEMETERY:

The cemetery serving both the villages of Herrlisheim and Hattstatt dates from the 18th century. After the War of 1870, the community, jointly with the neighboring community of Offendorf, acquired land on the road of Offendorf to establish its own burying ground (for these two villages). The first burial was on December 11th, 1886, that of a Barbara Dreyfus, spouse of Jacob Strauss. On the morning of Friday, April 30th, 2004, [Hitler's birthday] pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic inscriptions were discovered on 127 graves of the burying ground. Herrlisheim is near Colmar (Haut-Rhin). "SS " was sprayed with red paint spray during the night of Thursday to Friday, while swastikas and Celtic crosses were drawn on headstones. On a Hebrew sign at the entrance of the cemetery was sprayed "Juden raus" (Jewry out). The sign was covered with a German flag carrying "Ein Reich, Elsass, Sieg für den Führer". Another German flag put between two graves carried the Nazi slogan "ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer". The isolated spot is in a vineyard. Several times, the cemetery with at least 200 graves was vandalized in the past sixty years, but always restored. In 1994, gravestones had been overturned. No culprits ever have been found. [January 2008] [January 2008]

The still active Jewish cemetery was created in 1886; previously, Herrlisheim and Offendorf dead were buried  in Haguenau. The new cemetery in Herrlisheim was shared by the neighbouring village of Offendorf. About 250 tombs are vosible at the cemetery on the Rue d ' o village, directly at the end of the village of Herrlisheim right of the road photos. [October 2013]Nearly forty graves were vandalized with Nazi swastikas in the Jewish cemetery in Herrlisheim, France. [December 2018]

[UPDATE] Nearly forty graves were vandalized with Nazi swastikas in the Jewish cemetery in Herrlisheim, France. [December 2018]