Around 2,500 gravestones have been preserved to this day - and each of them has a story to tell. 'It touches me deeply that Jewish life here has no end,' says Margret Löther, Chairwoman of the Association for the Promotion of the Former Kitzingen Synagogue. And she knows what she is talking about. Whole families come to Rödelsee again and again, often from Israel or America, to look for traces of their ancestors in the cemetery. Such as the descendants of Nathan and Jette Gerst, formerly wine merchants in Kitzingen. Nine of the Herman and Fletcher families came to visit the grave of their great-great-great-grandparents. Find out more about the biographies and family histories of those buried and learn about the Jewish history of the villages in which they lived.
Seligmann Bear Bamberger
One of the most prominent rabbis of the 19th century was born in Wiesenbronn. Born in 1807, Seligmann Bär Bamberger made a name for himself above all as an advocate of orthodox Judaism faithful to the Talmud and was given the honorary title of "Würzburg Rabbi".
Mohrenwitz family
The surviving members of the Mohrenwitz family are scattered all over the world. Their professional career began in Sommerach. In 1817, 100 Jews lived there, including Löb Samson, who traded in wine, livestock and "other items" and is considered the progenitor of this Jewish family.
Julius Brussels
Julius Brüssel was born in Hollstadt in 1801, the son of a butcher. From 1830 he was a religious teacher and precentor in Segnitz. In 1848, he founded a "private educational institution for Jewish sons who had been dismissed from workday school and wanted to dedicate themselves to the commercial sector, including boarding school."
Kissinger family
Heinz Alfred Kissinger, better known as the former American Secretary of State "Henry Kissinger", has his roots in Rödelsee. The surname "Kissinger" was adopted by his great-great-grandfather Meyer Löb (1767-1838) in 1817 and refers to the town of Bad Kissingen, where Meyer Löb worked as a teacher.
Bernhard Frank
Bernhard Frank from Prichsenstadt was a respected personality. He was elected to the town council twice between 1919 and 1932. He also held various positions in the Jewish Community of Prichsenstadt and was the last chairman of the community from 1938.
Singer family
Numerous descendants came from the Obernbreiter Sänger family. Anna Sänger, one of the daughters, married a Christian in 1848 and probably lost contact with her family as a result.
Olga Benario
Olga Benario was heavily pregnant when she was deported from Brazil to Germany in 1936 as an undesirable foreigner, Jew and communist. She was immediately arrested by the National Socialists and sent to prison. It was there that her daughter was born.
Aron Benario
Aron Benario from Obernbreit was an important merchant. His economic success was accompanied by his reputation in the town. From 1865, he was the first Jew to be elected to the municipal council twice.
Abraham Lauber
Abraham Lauber from Marktbreit worked as a cattle dealer and butcher. He was a soldier in the First World War and died in Russia in April 1917. His body was repatriated to Germany and buried in the Jewish cemetery in Rödelsee on January 27, 1918.
Walter Reed
The Rindsberg family's only surviving son Walter was able to attend the laying of the Stolpersteine himself. He was able to become a US citizen in 1943 and thus survived the Holocaust. His parents and two brothers were murdered in the concentration camp.
Irene Katz
Irene Lärmer, affectionately called Reni by her mother Frieda, was born in Dornheim in 1924. She survived the Holocaust and became an important witness to the Shoah in her new American home, being invited to many commemorative events.
Hausmann family
The Hausmann family was integrated into the local community of Mainbernheim and part of the citizenry until they too left their home under the pressure of the Third Reich in 1939 to escape persecution. The Hausmanns moved to Nuremberg, but even there they were unable to escape the terror of Nazi rule.
Sophie Sondhelm
Sophie Sondhelm was born in 1887 in the market town of Kleinlangheim. Under her management, the Jewish children's sanatorium in Bad Kreuznach became a nationally renowned and highly regarded health resort. A school in Bad Kreuznach bears her name.
Gerst family
The brothers Nathan and Aron Gerst from Frankenwinheim are among the first Jews to move to Kitzingen after the Emancipation Edict of 1861, which opens up all towns in Bavaria to the settlement of Jewish citizens. They run a successful grain and wine wholesale business there and are part of the synagogue building committee.
Max Heidingsfelder
The Heidingsfelder family was one of the most influential Jewish families in Hüttenheim. From around 1880, some of its members moved to Kitzingen - including Max, born in Hüttenheim in 1857, who died in Kitzingen on December 26, 1925 and is buried in the Rödelsee Jewish cemetery.
Abraham Mannheimer
Abraham Mannheimer succeeded Jakob Kahn as teacher of the Jewish community in Dettelbach in 1898. It was thanks to him, among other things, that the Dettelbach Jewish elementary school was opened in the local synagogue in May 1909.
Fromm family
The Fromm family from Großlangheim is one of the best-known Jewish families in the Kitzingen region. They include the important philosopher and psychotherapist Erich Fromm as well as the wine merchant dynasty based in Kitzingen and Bingen am Rhein, which was founded by Nathan Fromm in Großlangheim.
Hahn family
"Nothing more to say and nothing more to say" is the title of a book in which we can read what the authors were able to find out about Ricka Hahn and her family from Kleinlangheim: At the Grave of an Old Jewish Woman. The Hahns.