The Jewish Cemetery in Dieburg

The cemetery is divided into three parts.

The oldest part is in the southernmost area and contains the oldest stones, dated 1715.

This area used to be entered through an entrance gate in the south wall, now bricked up.

According to city records, funerals also took place here between 1600 and 1700.

The gravestones from this period are made of sandstone, plain designs, rectangular or with round arches.

The inscriptions are almost all in Hebrew.

The central part is from the 19^th century. The stones here are sandstone, erratic boulders, some marble slabs and a few marble gravestones.

This was the period when Jewish life became assimilated.

The names have been Germanized, some inscriptions have Christian wording and are bi-lingual (German and Hebrew).

There are some classical gravestones that are richly decorated, but some plain ones as well.

The new part contains the graves from the 1920s and 30s.

A large part of this area is unoccupied.

The latest burials to take place here are only witnessed by the graves of three Polish "displaced persons". The stones in this part are made of polished granite and marble.

The inscriptions were bilingual (German-Hebrew) and included dates of birth.

The Dieburg cemetery is a district community cemetery.

In the mid-19^th century, the following 21 communities were involved:

Eppertshausen

Georgenhausen

Groß-Bieberau

Groß-Umstadt

Groß-Zimmern

Gundernhausen

Habitzheim

Klein-Umstadt

Lengfeld

Messel

Münster Ober-Klingen

Ober-Ramstadt

Raibach

Reinheim

Roßdorf

Semd

Spachbrücken

Ueberau

Urberach

Zeilhard .

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