The old Jewish cemetery in Attendorn is located on the street "Am Himmelsberg" on the edge of the town center and is listed as a historical monument in the corresponding register of the town of Attendorn.
The outsider status of the Jews was already evident in earlier times in Attendorn in the degrading place they were assigned to bury their dead. Jewish burials took place at the edge of a steep footpath on the "Himmelsberg" in the direction of Ennest. The first evidence of this can be found in 1830, when Hendel Klein and Schaft Mai were buried.
In 1864, the royal government in Arnsberg granted permission to expand the burial ground. Before approval was granted, however, the land had to be transferred to the Israelite community.
Documents from the Attendorn town archives, file B 254, page 229, state: "A Jewish cemetery is to be built in Attendorn. In this connection, the district administrator asks for information as to whether the cemetery is to be a public Jewish burial ground or a private cemetery for individual families. He also needs to know whether there is running water or a well nearby."
The cemetery was to be extended as late as 1928. The Attendorn town archive, Depositum Schützengesellschaft SG 60, page 137, provides the following information: "Minutes of the meeting of the shooting committee at the Hotel Kaiserhof; Captain Josef Biecker, Ewald Heiderhoff, Anton Viegener, Josef Teipel, Peter Kampschulte, Robert Hamers, Otto Siepe, Franz Frey, Erich Rodomski, Paul Bettig, Carl Hesse and Felix Stumpf junior were present. Application by the Israelite community for the purchase of a strip of land. transfer of a strip of land on Himmelsberg to enlarge the cemetery. After a detailed discussion, it is decided to first hold a site inspection on one of the next Sundays. Afterwards, the application of the israel. Gmde. is to be put on the agenda of a board meeting again."
The last burial in the Jewish cemetery took place secretly on July 25, 1942. On that day, Emil Stern, who had voluntarily given up his life in order to avoid deportation to Dortmund and from there to one of the extermination camps, was buried by Christian friends.
Today, 33 graves have been preserved on the approximately 1,000 m² plot, including two graves without stones. Some of the inscriptions, especially those on the older sandstone gravestones at the front, are very difficult to decipher. Several gravestones are inscribed on both sides, in German and Hebrew.
The Jewish cemetery is now owned by the State Association of Jewish Communities of Westfalen-Lippe, based in Dortmund. In close cooperation with the cemetery administration and the building yard of the town of Attendorn, the Jewish cemetery is regularly and alternately maintained by the secondary schools from Attendorn.
PARKING
The Jewish cemetery "Am Himmelsberg" is located in a cul-de-sac with limited parking facilities. Visitors arriving by car are recommended to use the "Feuerteich" parking lot between Westwall and Truchseßgasse. From there, walk up Ennester Weg in the direction of the Jewish cemetery.
CEMETERY RULES
- Please respect the peace of the dead.
- It is essential that you leave the small stones placed on the gravestones. Removing these stones is considered desecration of the grave.
- Male visitors are required to wear a head covering.
MEMORIAL PLAQUE AT THE CEMETERY
In August 1982, a plaque commemorating the members of the former Jewish community was unveiled at the Attendorn Jewish cemetery as part of a small ceremony to mark the exchange between pupils from the Binyamina community in Israel and pupils from the two Attendorn grammar schools Rivius Gymnasium and St. Ursula Gymnasium. At the memorial service, Rabbi Emil Davidovic and Attendorn native Gerhard Gabriel Stern from Jerusalem recited the Kaddish prayers.
The memorial plaque, like the memorial plaque in the town center, was designed by Attendorn sculptor Karl-Josef Hoffmann.
GUIDED TOURS:
The Jewish cemetery is open to the public and can also be visited as part of the "Jewish in Attendorn" city tour.
With the historic Jewish cemetery, the memorial plaque to the pogrom night in November 1938 and a total of 14 "Stumbling Stones" in the town center, there are traces of "Jewish life" in Attendorn, to which the expert and author Hartmut Hosenfeld leads the participants with a lot of Wissen, exciting anecdotes, thoughtful moments and the one or other "Yiddish joke".
- Duration: approx. 120 minutes
- Booking & Info: Hartmut Hosenfeld, 02722-7123 or hartmuthosenfeld@t-online.de or alternatively Tom Kleine, Tel. 0171-1198273 or info@juedisch-in-attendorn.org
- Cost: €30.00 for groups and school classes. This money will be forwarded to the "Hupendo School" in Kangemi, a slum in Nairobi (Kenya) with more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Hike
The Julius Ursell-Weg was opened in 2018 in collaboration with the SGV Attendorn branch. This approximately 10-kilometre-long, first Jewish themed hiking trail in Germany was designed as part of the "Shalom Attendorn 2018" project in memory of the Jew Julius Ursell. Until the National Socialists seized power in 1933, he was responsible for marking the hiking trails in Attendorn as treasurer and trail warden of the SGV.
The hiking trail leads past former Jewish sites in Attendorn's town center as well as the tourist highlight "BiggeBlick" next to the SGV hut above the Biggesee. The route, the tourist highlights, the download of the hiking flyer and information on the individual stops can be found here: https: //www.juedisch-in-attendorn.org/julius-ursell-weg/streckenverlauf-highlights-infos/
THE CEMETERY IN THE EPIDAT DATABASE
The Attendorn Jewish Cemetery has been included in the EPIDAT database of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History at the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2021: http: //www.steinheim-institut.de/cgi-bin/epidat?id=att&lang=de