The Old Jewish Cemetery
The Old Jewish Cemetery is below the Horticultural Exhibition Centre, between Cyriak Strasse 3 and 4. When a community began to develop again in Erfurt in the 19th century, the first cemetery was built here in 1811. Members of the Jewish community were buried here until the opening of the New Jewish Cemetery in 1878. The cemetery continued to exist here even after this date, since according to Jewish belief, the rest of the dead lasts forever.
But the rest of the dead was increasingly destroyed with the growth of anti-Semitism in the 20th century. As early as 1926, in the night of 12th to 13th March, the cemetery was desecrated by members of the Viking Federation. Further attacks followed in November 1938, and the Large Synagogue on Kartäuser Ring was set on fire during the same period. In the meeting of the City Council on 17 November 1938, a suggestion was made by Council Member Waldemar Heinemann that "the old Jewish cemetery on Cyriak Street should also be flattened". On 6 April 1939, the Jewish community had to hand over the site of the cemetery to the City of Erfurt without payment, and in 1944 the gravestones were cleared away.
In 1948, the site was returned to the Regional Association of Jewish Communities. However, from 1950 onwards, the City made constant attempts to buy the site to create a public park there. In 1951, the Jewish community sold the site to the City of Erfurt – probably under pressure, since any change of use of the cemetery is contrary to the eternal rest of the dead in which the Jewish faith believes. At the beginning of the 1960s, garages were built here to house the vehicles of the state prosecutors of the District of Erfurt, with foundations also made from the remains of the Jewish gravestones. This situation was unbearable for practicing Jews, as the head of the Jewish community at the time, Mr Scharf-Katz, stated in a letter in 1989. Nonetheless, the construction of a transformer building on the cemetery site was still allowed in 1995.
A memorial stone was initially erected as a memorial to the cemetery in 1996. Making the cemetery visible again has been under discussion since 2000, and consideration has been given to how this could be done since 2007. The garages have already been demolished and the area cleared. In the new design, the cemetery site is separated from the park, and the original gravestones, some of which have been taken to safety at the New Cemetery, would be returned here. Work is to be completed by 2009 .