What the gravestones tell us. Deciphering the Jewish cemeteries of Heilbronn.

Lecture as part of the Jewish Cultural Days Heilbronn 2025. Dr. Aurast (historian at the Heilbronn City Archive) presents the two documentation projects of the local, still existing Jewish cemeteries. Cemeteries are resting places for the dead. They are also cultural monuments and serve as important cultural historical as well as personal and family historical sources. However, as outdoor facilities, they are exposed to the elements and thus to decay. In the case of Jewish cemeteries, the effects of the Holocaust are added – often, along with the people, their dead and the memory of them were completely erased. To preserve what exists, two documentation projects of the local, still existing Jewish cemeteries were commissioned by the city of Heilbronn in the early 1990s: the Israelite Cemetery Im Breitenloch and the Jewish Association Cemetery in Sontheim. All still legible tomb inscriptions from both cemeteries were transcribed, translated from Hebrew, and photographed. The speaker recounts, based on these documents, how much history is hidden behind the gravestones.