WALLERSTEIN JEWISH CEMETERY - GRAVE LIST

A result of Harburg Project research activities () VERSION 01

THE HISTORY OF THIS GRAVE LIST

This list contains the basic genealogical contents of nearly 1.000 grave inscriptions of the Jewish cemetery of Wallerstein in Bavaria and was compiled by Rolf Hofmann in the years 2003 – 2005, based on the transcription of the Hebrew inscriptions, carefully done by the Jewish teacher Hieronymus Stein and his son Sigmund Stein around 1890 (sponsored by the Wallerstein born banker Emil Wassermann of Bamberg), later completed by the teacher Gustav Erlebacher (around 1935), whose wife was buried here in 1936 (grave 990) and who in 1941 became a shoah victim. Translation into German was provided by Rachel Dror, Dr Joachim Hahn, Mario Jacoby, Ruth Litai-Jacoby, David Birnbaum, and Gisela Blume. Additional information was taken from still existing grave monuments (ca 330), tax lists, burial lists of the historic County of Oettingen, the "Jews matrikel" of the 19th century, various other personal files and 19 th century vital records of those Jewish communities then still using this cemetery as a central burial ground, until some of them started with their own cemeteries: Wallerstein, Oberdorf (until 1824), Oettingen (until 1850), Hainsfarth (until 1850), Pflaumloch (until 1839) and Kleinerdlingen (usually called "Erlangen" by Jews, never had its own cemetery). Besides that the Noerdlingen Jewish community was reestablished in 1870 (after 363 years of absence), and had its own cemetery since 1880. The Noerdlingen Jewish cemetery was also documented by Harburg Project with a grave list plus map in 2004.

SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH VERIFICATION

Many of the following notations unfortunately contain errors as a basic and inevitable problem for several reasons. The stonemasons then were Christians, who were not familiar with Hebrew letters at all, so mistakes could easiliy have happened. Further more the teacher Stein might have had problems in deciphering old inscriptions, when he did his work around 1890, with most headstones decades old and many of them even more than one hundred years old. Besides that most common civil names were quite different from the traditional names of the deceased (which they were given when born), so often enough their names on their grave monuments were not the same as those by which they were known officially in every day life and in tax lists. Often enough a definite identification is very difficult or even impossible, because names and personal relations are not clear, and names of home villages are missing. The following list was very carefully composed, but still is not perfect in many ways and not always 100 % correct, as we probably may have contributed further errors due to the incredible amount of information we had to deal with. But it's a unique and valuable source not only for ancestors delving deeper into the far away history of their own family, but also for other genealogists and historians. Identification efforts probably will be a never ending task for future researchers.

SPELLING OF NAMES

As there is obviously only very little interest in this documentation by most German speaking historians or researchers, we decided to make this display for English speaking readers, especially for the descendants of Jewish families who once had lived in this area. So we named the months and holidays in English, but we generally left the names of the inscriptions in their original spelling, which was in Hebrew with some Jiddish aspects. In addition the names taken from vital records (and those in the name index) have a more German touch. One has to keep in mind that spelling varied then, because in these days spelling was mostly individual, often enough phonetical and not based on a general rule.

DEATH DATE IDENTIFICATION

The hebrew death dates given in the original grave list often enough did not match the death dates given in other (more reliable) records, so we had to speculate in finding the identity of many of the deceased. We tried to do this very carefully to avoid mistakes. In cases where we had doubts we put question marks. Date conversion from Hebrew dates to Gregorian dates was done with the help of hebcal date converter. Probably the identity of many of the deceased never will be uncovered, but it's a miracle anyway that with so many of them identification was possible. And above all, the fact that the original grave list survived the holocaust is the real miracle indeed.

LAST NAME INDEX

Without a last name index readers of this gravelist would get totally lost in confusion. A last name index is very helpful for researchers following an ancestral guideline. So we tried to find out the last names of the deceased. As most Jewish families had no last names during the 18th century, we also tried to find the last names which their descendants adopted in 1813 according to the order of the Bavarian king. This sometimes was a pretty hard task, and we were not successful in all cases. The last name index (in MS Works) comes in a separate file and can be easily switched to other indexes like grave numbers, death years and home villages, which might be helpful for some researchers in tracing their ancestors.

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

So may be in one hundred years or so someone might appreciate our efforts the same way as we did with the gratefully respected results of teacher Stein's troublesome initiative in compiling a somehow complete list of grave inscriptions that otherwise might have been lost since then. A hidden and valuable treasure of the past, unique for the Swabian part of Bavaria, ignored so far by those who should have recognized.

TECHNICAL REMARKS

(1) "=" instead of the first digit of the five digit Hebrew year display indicates that this grave monument still existed in 2003 (but far not all of the existing grave inscriptions were still legible at this time).

(2) "?" instead of the five digit Hebrew year display means that identification of this person is not yet clear.

(3) "H" in connection with Hebrew year means that identification was positively checked by applying Hebrew calender converter, but often enough inscription date and death record or date of burial list doesn't match.

(4) "N" in connection with Hebrew year means that verification by using calender converter was not successful

BASIC GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION FROM INSCRIPTIONS AND VARIOUS OTHER SOURCES

nr year names on head stones (written in capital letters)

001 5533-N TELZ of Oettingen (daughter of Haenle, wife of Koppel) died Sukkot III 533 (= 12-18 Oct 1732 according to hebcal)

002 ? ESTHER, daughter of Benjamin, died 24 Elul 411 (no village mentioned)

(would be 10 Sep 1651 or 21 Sep 1851 according to hebcal)

003 5480 SARA RACHEL (daughter of Parnas Jakob Oettingen, wife of Rabbi Pinchas Katzenellenbogen in Oettingen)

died Monday 8 Adar II (year in original index = 485 ? – year must be wrong – according to death list she died

18 Mar 1720) this must be the first wife of Pinchas Katzenellenbogen, who served as Rabbi for the Wallerstein district

in 1719/20 and who went to Marktbreit after his wife's death, where he married again – his son Jakob Pinchas

Katzenellenbogen (= grave 532, out of second marriage) served as Rabbi for the Oettingen district 1764-1795,

and his grandson Pinchas Jakob Katzenellenbogen (grave 731) succeeded in this position 1795-1845

004 5490-N SARA of Oettingen (daughter of deceased Parnas Meir, wife of Rabbi Ensle)

died 29 Cheshvan 490 (= 21 Nov 1729 according to hebcal)

005 5604-H BELA RACHEL RIES of Hainsfarth (a child, daughter of Seligmann Ries) died 11 Sivan 604

= 29 May 1844 (1 1/2 years old)

006 5597-H TREINLE of Hainsfarth (wife of Isak Oberdorfer) died 16 Sivan 597 = 19 Jun 1837,

she died at age 35 (text continued in appendix), her husband remarried 1 Mar 1838 Breindel Steinmeier of Hainsfarth

007 5608-H HANNA LANDAUER of Oettingen died 1 Adar I 608 (would be 5 Feb 1848 according to hebcal)

according to death record she died 6 Feb 1848 at age 39 (= daughter of Hessel and wife of Benedikt Landauer)

008 =592-H SIMON HIRSCH NEUHAEUSER of Oettingen (son of Jitzchak) died 4 Tishrei 592 = 11 Sep 1831 at age 57

009 5646-H HANNA NEUBURGER of Kleinerdlingen (daughter of Moshe Neuburger) died 21 Adar II 646 = 28 Mar 1886,

she was 79 years old and unmarried

010 =597-H MOSHE STEINFURTER (son of Elchanan Steinfurter) died 10 Cheshvan 597

(he was a merchant, born in Jebenhausen and died on his way to Kleinerdlingen on 21 Oct 1836 at age 36)

011 5608-H MOSHE NEUBURGER of Kleinerdlingen (son of David) died 24 Tevet 608 = 31 Dec 1847 at age 80 as a widower

012 =596-H BREINDEL ZUCKENDORFER of Wallerstein (nee Neumaier), wife of Mendel Zuckendorfer, died 1 Elul 596

(would be 14 Aug 1836 according to hebcal) according to death record she died 13 Aug 1836 at age 40

(her husband = grave 811)

013 5598-H MEIER GROSS of Wallerstein (son of Tevel = David ) died 26 Adar 598 (would be 23 Mar 1838 according to hebcal)

according to death record this was Meyer Gross, who died in Wallerstein 19 Mar 1838 at age 64, he was unmarried

014 =596-H JOSEPH SCHLOSS of Untereisenheim (son of deceased Lazarus Schloss) died 1 Av 596 = 15 Jul 1836 in Wallerstein

at age 22, he was unmarried (Untereisenheim lies near Wuerzburg in Franconia)

015 =595-H GITELE, a child of 3 1/2 years, died 19 Cheshvan 595 = 21 Nov 1834, daughter of Salomon Aufhauser in Hainsfarth

016 5590 SARA, RACHEL and JITELE = 3 daughters of Rabbi Pinchas Jacob Katzenellenbogen of Oettingen died within a few

months: 30 Nov 1829 (1 3/4 years old), 5 Apr 1830 (8 days old) and 9 Apr 1830 (15 months old)

017 no inscription available

018 no inscription available

019 5599-H ABRAHAM MOSHE FEDERMANN of Oettingen (son of Jitzchak Arje) died 4 Sh'vat 599 = 19 Jan 1839,

three years old son of bag maker Isak Loew Federmann

020 5618 MOSHE WEINMANN of Wallerstein (son of Parnas of Jewish community = Loeb Weinmann) died 5 Adar 517

(year is absolutely wrong, as the surname Weinmann only existed since 1813), according to death record this must

be Moshe Loeb Weinmann, who died 4 Aug 1858 in Neuburg at age 62, he was married

021 5593-H KOPPEL BEN HESSEL of Wallerstein died 19 Sh'vat 593 = 8 Feb 1833 (1 1/2 years old)

death record mentions him as "Jacob, son of Hessel Hoenle"

022 5595-H GABRIEL BEN CHAJM (or HEYUM) of Wallerstein died 22 Adar 595 = 23 Mar 1835, 76 years old and unmarried

(death record mentions no last name)

023 5596-H MORDECHAI BEN CHAJM of Kleinerdlingen died Sukkot IV 596 (would be 11 Oct 1835 according to hebcal)

according to death record this was Marx Wallersteiner (servant of the Jewish community) who died 8 Oct 1835 at age 77

024 5601-H SIMON BEN ITZIK of Oettingen died 14 Elul 601 (would be 31 Aug 1841 according to hebcal)

according to death record this must be Simon Wernitz, who died 30 Aug 1841 at age 69

025 5622-N MORDECHAI MARX (son of Moshe Meir of Crailsheim) died during Sukkot 622 ?

(would be 19-25 Sep 1861 according to hebcal)

026 5597-H FRADEL PFLAUM of Pflaumloch (daughter of David Moshe Friedmann)

she was born 15 Sh'vat 536 and died 2 Sivan 597 = 5 Jun 1837 at age 61 (her husband Alexander Michael = grave 028)

027 5597-H ABRAHAM BEN SALOMON FRIEDMANN of Pflaumloch (son of Salomon Friedmann)

died 12 Av 597 (would be 13 Aug 1837 according to hebcal)

according to death record he died 11 Aug 1837 (he was born 18 Sep 1836)

028 =591-H ALEXANDER (SENDER) PFLAUM of Pflaumloch (Parnas of Jewish community, son of David Pflaum)

died 16 Tamuz 591 (would be 27 Jul 1831 according to hebcal)

according to death record he died 6 Jun 1831 at age 57 as "Alexander Michael" Pflaum (his wife Fradel = grave 026)

029 5611 CHAJM (HEYUM) BAER of Wallerstein died …? Iyyar 603 ? (no day mentioned)

(year was wrong, must be 611) according to death record he died 4 May 1851 at age 84 (his wife Dina = grave 30)

030 5612 DINA BAER of Wallerstein (daughter of Simon, widow of Chajm) died Pesach IV 612

(would be 29 Mar 1852 according to hebcal) according to death record she died 5 Apr 1852 at age 81

(her husband Chajm = grave 029)

031 5584-N ITZIK SEGAL JITZCHAK HALEVI ? of Oberdorf died 9 Tamuz 584 ? (would be 5 Jul 1824 according to hebcal)

032 5648-H JETTE RENAU of Wallerstein (daughter of Elia Renau) died 11 Sivan 648 (would be 21 May 1888 according to hebcal)

according to death record she died 27 May 1888 (she was born ca 1820 in Marktbreit)

033 5573-? MEIER WASSERMANN of Wallerstein (son of Anschel Wassermann), died 3 Kislev 573

(would be 7 Nov 1812 according to hebcal) he was 6 years old

034 5580- ? PESSELE SARA of Wallerstein (daughter of Abraham Oberdorfer ?) died 14 Tishrei 580 at age 12

(would be 3 Oct 1819 according to hebcal)

035 5505-N JAKOB KOPPEL of Hainsfarth (son of Mordechai) died 4 Iyyar 505 ? (would be 15 Apr 1755 according to hebcal)

a Jacob Moses died between 1766 and 1772, as he was followed by his son Moses Jacob in taxlist –

ancestor of Ries family ?

036 5502-H JOSEPH BEN MOSHE JEHUDA of Oettingen died 16 Tamuz 502 (would be 18 Jul 1742

according to hebcal) burial list of 1742 mentions "Mauschy's son in Oettingen", no exact date given

037 5510-N JECHESKIJAHU HESSEL, son of Benjamin Wolf Schlenker of Fuerth, died Pesach IV 510

(would be 24 Apr 1750 according to hebcal) no village mentioned

038 5574-H ARIE BEN LOEB JAKOB WEIS of Wallerstein died 26 Sivan 574 = 14 Jun 1814

(death record mentions him as Loeb Jakob Weis) the surname "Weis" was adopted in 1813