Jewish Cemetery Laufersweiler

The Jewish cemetery part-1

The Jewish cemetery of Laufersweiler is located above the village at the end of the street "Kelebann" and was laid out outside the village in accordance with religious guidelines. A purity law requires that the dwellings of the dead be separated from those of the living. The rest of the dead is a great good according to Jewish ideas. Therefore, a burial site cannot be occupied more than once, as is the case with Christian cemeteries. The cemetery area sloping to the west is a listed building. The owner is the Jewish community of Koblenz. There was an older part of the cemetery in the adjoining south-eastern area. However, nothing can be seen of the system today. The current area, which was fenced in after World War II, therefore only includes the younger part of a much larger cemetery. There are fifty-one tombstones in the Jewish cemetery today, far fewer than were once set there. They are arranged in a single row in a horseshoe shape around the cemetery path. When the Jews in Laufersweiler first acquired a plot of land for the construction of a burial place, it cannot be said with any certainty. According to some older residents, the older part of the Jewish cemetery was laid out as early as 1800. From old files it can be seen that at the beginning of the 20th century, due to the growth of the Jewish community in Laufersweiler, it became necessary to expand the cemetery by purchasing a neighboring property. Although the permit was granted in 1905, it took another six years before the Jewish community was finally able to acquire the coveted property (today's cemetery area) and prepare it as a burial site.

The Jewish cemetery part-2

The last funeral took place during the Third Reich. In 1962 the municipality of Laufersweiler had the newer part of the cemetery enclosed with a beech hedge, while the larger and older part was leveled and then sold. The few remaining tombstones of the old cemetery were moved to the new part and put up again there. Of the 10 Jewish cemeteries that still exist in the Rhein-Hunsrück district, the one in Laufersweiler is the smallest with an area of 640 square meters. The chronicle reports the following about the course of the Jewish burial: “After a death, money was collected within the synagogue community. Women did not go to the cemetery with them. The Christian neighborhood also attended the funeral. A white towel hung on every Jewish house, there was a bucket of water and a ladle to wash your hands. There were no flowers, wreaths etc., only a stone was placed on the tombstone as a sign and greeting for the relatives ”. Descendants of former Jewish citizens from Laufersweiler, who themselves or their ancestors were able to leave Germany in time and found a new home in Argentina, USA or Israel, are now looking for contact with the former home of their parents and grandparents and are tracing the roots of their origins. The Jewish cemetery is not only a place of remembrance for family members, relatives and close friends of the deceased, but also offers other visitors the opportunity to gain access to Jewish history and religion in addition to the synagogue. Source: Concept, design, text: Hans-Werner Johann

From 1911 to Third Reich, this part of the Jewish cemetery was used for burials. Today, 51 tombstones are still visible, some of them from the leveled older part of the cemetery (about 1800 - 1911).