The Jewish Cemetery
Stadtarchiv Lüneburg, BS 7132 (detail)
The first burial in the Jewish cemetery, which had existed since 1823, took place in early 1828.
In November 1938 the cemetery was vandalized and desecrated; in 1943/44 it was completely destroyed and put to other uses. Since 1965 a memorial stone has stood within the area of the former graves.
In 1967, during the demolition of a temporary housing structure erected in the western part of the site in 1944, thirteen gravestones and several fragments were recovered. In 1972 they were erected at the edge of the former burial ground, while an additional twenty-one gravestone fragments and base stones were placed to the right and left of the 1965 memorial stone.
In 2026 the Jewish cemetery was redesigned.
Here you can find information about the redesign of the Jewish cemetery in 2026, as well as about the surviving historic gravestones, some of which were reassembled, and the stelae preserving the names of those buried here.
You will also find a brief summary of the history of the cemetery and of the Tahara house.
The Jewish Cemetery today
The four areas of the Jewish Cemetery
Area A)
The Tahara House, restored in 2023/24 and originally built in 1912: Together with the entrance gate, the only surviving Jewish community building in Lüneburg marks the special significance of this site.
Area B)
The area commemorating the fate of the cemetery: Of the 170 graves, only a few fragments and thirteen gravestones survive. These were reassembled from the remaining pieces wherever possible. Their arrangement in the form of an oval emphasizes that they no longer stand in the locations of the historic graves. The re-erected gravestones bear witness to what took place here and serve as a reminder for the future.
Area C)
The historic burial ground, completely destroyed in 1943/44: In order to preserve the names of all those buried here, six stelae have been erected, made possible through donations from citizens of Lüneburg. They bear the first and last names as well as the years of birth and death of the deceased. The names are arranged according to the dates of burial.
Area D)
The northwestern section of the cemetery grounds: Between 1944 and 1967 this area contained the temporary housing structure erected by the city of Lüneburg. No burials ever took place in this section, and it is therefore reserved for future burials. Two newly planted trees commemorate the trees that stood here until the destruction of the cemetery in 1943/44.
Historic Gravestones
During the November Pogrom of 1938, Nazi activists desecrated parts of the Jewish cemetery. Nevertheless, the Jewish community was still able to continue using it: in 1939 one final burial took place here.
The actual destruction of the cemetery occurred during the winter of 1943/44. The city of Lüneburg, which intended to erect temporary housing on the site, ordered the cemetery grounds to be cleared and levelled. Up to that point all gravestones were still present in the cemetery, and many were even still standing upright. Most of them were removed and reused elsewhere. Only a few stones were incorporated into the foundations of the temporary housing erected in early 1944.
This temporary housing was demolished in 1967. During the demolition, thirteen gravestones built into the foundations, together with numerous fragments, reappeared. After being stored in makeshift conditions for several years, the identifiable parts of the gravestones were finally erected in 1972 in a row along the edge of the former burial ground. Other stone fragments were placed to the right and left of the memorial stone erected in 1965.
The Association of Jewish Communities was largely left alone with the horticultural maintenance of the cemetery; again and again the gravestones became overgrown. This changed only in the late 1990s, when the city of Lüneburg began to maintain the cemetery on a regular basis.
As part of the redesign of the Jewish cemetery, the thirteen gravestones were reassembled in 2026 from the surviving fragments and erected once again in their full height. In addition, a newly discovered fragment was identified as part of the gravestone of Moritz Jacobsohn and re-erected for the first time since the destruction of 1943/44. The Hebrew inscriptions of the gravestones were also prepared for inclusion in the “epidat” database. In the course of this, it was possible for the first time to identify the stone of Emma Lindenberg, whose German inscription had been lost.
Stelae Preserving the Names
As part of the redesign of the Jewish cemetery, six stelae preserving the names of the dead were erected in 2026. They bear the names of all 170 people who were buried here between 1828 and 1939.
Each name leads to an entry in the database.
Stela 1
Stela 2
Ephraim Albert Meyer [1864-1865]
Hannchen Rosenstein [1826-1865]
Robert Eduard Meyer [1868-1868]
Wolf Hirsch Michaels [1803-1869]
Stela 3
Stela 4
Stela 5
