The Schmieheim cemetery is a living record of the unsettled history of the Jews in the Ortenau region. It was established presumably at the end of the 17th century, when the first Jews were allowed to re-settle in the region. It is the largest Jewish joint cemetery (140,000 sq. meters = approx. 3 1/2 acres) in South Baden and contains around 2500 graves. The oldest known tombstone stems from the year 1701. It bears Hebrew inscriptions only, as do all gravestones from the ghetto period, while the tombstones from the period after Jewish emancipation have Hebrew inscriptions on the front side and German on the back.

There is also a war memorial in the cemetery that commemorates the Jewish soldiers who died in World War I and documents the solidarity that Jews felt toward their German Fatherland, a fact denied by anti-Semites. Several of the 20th century graves differ in no way from Christian graves, reflecting the Jews' efforts to assimilate into Christian society.

Of significance are the various symbols carved into the tombstones, many of which can be found in the Schmieheim cemetery. During the Third Reich persecution era it was hardly possible to have a tombstone made after 1938, so several graves went unmarked and cannot be identified today. The Jewish morgue was destroyed during the November pogrom in 1938, and many of the gravestones were overturned. After the war the French military commander ordered Schmieheim citizens to reset the overturned gravestones. Graves have been repeatedly desecrated throughout the years up into present times, but the culprits could never be apprehended.

The cemetery is now maintained by the Kippenheim-Schmieheim town administration which had the World War I war memorial restored in the summer of 1998. A documentary about the cemetery was published in May 1999. Each tombstone has been photographed and the Hebrew inscriptions translated. The results are published in a memorial. Its title: Der jüdische Friedhof in Schmieheim. Memor Buch; published by Naftali Bar-Giora Bamberger ("Bamberger Familien Archiv", 91003 Jerusalem, P.O.P 397, Israel); ISBN 3-924123-40-3; 2 Volumes. This memorial book is available at the town hall of Kippenheim. Price: 215.- DM. 

The Patrons Society will be happy to furnish information - as far as possible - about the location of graves. Please write, call or e-mail us!