Gemeinde Rödelsee

In a writ of protection issued in 1563, Baron Wilhelm Moritz von Hessberg allowed the Jews in his territory “to build their burial site near Rötelsehe on the path that leads to Iphoven”.

As early as the Middle Ages, Jewish expellees from other territories settled between the river Main and the Steigerwald hills. But this was not a safe haven. In the 16th century, Jews were forced to leave the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg. Many found refuge in neighbouring villages controlled by the lower nobility. However, they had to pay their rulers large sums for protection.

These “protected Jews” established Rödelsee’s Jewish cemetery, now one of the largest in Bavaria (almost 2 hectares). Until 1816, the cemetery district included the Jewish communities of Bullenheim, Dornheim, Grosslangheim, Hohenfeld, Hüttenheim, Kitzingen, Kleinlangheim, Mainbernheim, Mainstockheim, Marktbreit, Marktsteft, Nenzenheim, Obernbreit, Rödelsee, Segnitz, Sommerach, Sommerhausen and Wiesenbronn. As many as 1,209 burials took place between 1850 and 1938. Even ancestors of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger lived and were buried in Rödelsee.

Graves were intentionally desecrated again and again, especially in the Nazi era: Gravestones were repeatedly pushed over, as many as 285 in April 1939. In the Pogrom Night on 9th/10th November 1938, the Taharah House was set on fire. This is where the ritual purification of the deceased was performed. The deportation of the last Lower Franconian Jews in 1943 marked the end of Jewish burials in Rödelsee. However, this does not mean the cemetery desecrations also ended at that point.

Rödelsee is aware of its responsibility for keeping the memory of its Jewish inhabitants alive. This is why, for example, four Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) commemorating the local Holocaust victims were placed in the pavement in front of where the synagogue stood.