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Germany: Two Cemeteries Vandalised, New Cemetery Planned in Frankfurt, Shattered Gravestones to be Reassembled, Cemeteries to be Restored – Greece: Cemetery Desecrated –Poland: Maintenance Agreement for Gorzow Wielkopolski, Suwalki to be Monitored –Sweden: Malmö Jewish Cemetery Firebombed. |
Two Jewish Cemeteries Vandalised in Germany
28 January 2009
In the city of Laupheim, red swastikas were sprayed on the wall of a Jewish cemetery. The municipality removed the damage at the cost of 2,000 Euros. The police have launched an investigation.
Read the original article (in German) on www.szon.de
26 January 2009
Eleven gravestones were toppled in the Jewish cemetery of Schwedt. The police are looking for witnesses. Last year, the seventeenth-century cemetery saw the restoration of a number of gravestones that had suffered from unfavourable weather conditions and vegetation overgrowth.
Read the original article (in German) on newsticker.welt.de
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Jewish Cemetery in Greece Desecrated
21 January 2009
In the Greek city of Ioannina, three tombs in the local Jewish cemetery were desecrated on 12 January. Additional acts of desecration had occurred earlier in January in an Athens Jewish cemetery and at the site of a Jewish monument in Corfu. The Central Jewish Council of Greece (Kis) accused the police of ignoring its calls for increased security at the Ioannina cemetery.
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Agreement Secured for Maintenance of Gorzow WielkopolskiJewish Cemetery, Poland
16 January 2009
According to an agreement with the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ), members of the ‘Man in Need – Volunteers of Gorzow’ association will now take care of the Gorzow Wielkopolski Jewish cemetery.
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Suwalki Jewish Cemetery, Poland, to be Regularly Monitored
14 January 2009
The Jewish cemetery in the Polish city of Suwalki will soon be regularly monitored. This is the outcome of a meeting between representatives of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ) and the local authorities.
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New Jewish Cemetery Planned in Eastern Germany
14 January 2009
The Jewish community of Frankfurt (Oder) in Eastern Germany purchased land for a new cemetery in December 2008. Re-founded in 1998, the community now has 220 members.
While financial planning for establishing the new cemetery has not been finalised, the Land of Brandenburg is expected to contribute 100,000 Euros to the total cost of 160,000 Euros. The cemetery is scheduled to be inaugurated in 2011.
The city’s old Jewish cemetery, built in 1399, was hit by two bombs in February 1944. The end of World War II saw the land of the cemetery become part of Poland, and a motel was built on the site in 1974. Thanks to the efforts of New York Rabbi Berel Polatsek, the motel was replaced by a memorial in 1999, with ownership being transferred to the Szczecin Jewish community.
Read the original article (in German) on www.neues-deutschland.de
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Shattered Gravestones to be Reassembled
13 January 2009
17 boxes of shattered gravestones will be reassembled in the German city of Wörlitz as part of an employment-creation measure.
The original location of the gravestones was the Wörlitz Jewish cemetery, established in 1719 and in use until the early twentieth century. Upon the cemetery’s complete destruction under Nazi rule, the gravestones were used as pavement material. They were retrieved between 1951 and 1987, and have been preserved thanks to the efforts of a local foundation.
Under the job-creation scheme, five employees will try to reassemble the gravestones under the guidance of an architect over the course of five months. In the case of a successful reconstruction, the Central Council of Jews will provide funding for the study of the gravestones’ inscriptions.
Read the original article (in German) on www.mz-web.de
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Malmö Jewish Cemetery Firebombed
13 January 2009
A Jewish cemetery in the Swedish city of Malmö was firebombed. Bottles containing flammable liquid caused damage to the cemetery’s burial chapel. The attack was the third in recent weeks on the Malmö cemetery.
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Two Jewish Cemeteries in Germany to be Partially Restored
9 January 2009
The walls and gates of two Jewish cemeteries in the German city of Mönchengladbach will be restored. The unused Odenkirchen and Wickrath cemeteries were established in the nineteenth century. The restoration will cost approximately 50,850 Euros, 30,500 of which were made available by the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia at the end of last year.
Read the full article (in German) at www.presse-service.de
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