page_title: History of the Jews in Oldenburg
section_title: Cemetery
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Jews in Oldenburg / History / Places / Cemetery
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Grabstein des Landrabbiners Berhard Wechsler (1807-1874) und seiner Ehefrau Adelheid Wechsler (geb. Aub; 1817-1874) auf dem jüdischen Friedhof zu Oldenburg
context_page_description: The Jewish community of Oldenburg in northwest Germany was established as early as the 14th century. It existed consecutively ever since, except for occasion deportations by the local rulers of the Duchy of Oldenburg and the Holocaust, which annihilated the majority of Jews left in the city in the 1930s. Nevertheless, after the Holocaust, Jewish survivors have returned and resettled in the Oldenburg Jewish community, which nowadays operates actively within the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the fastest growing Jewish community in the world.
context_section_description: The Jewish community of Oldenburg acquired its own cemetery in 1814 at Ostenburg, which was then a rural suburb of Oldenburg, and the first burial was also held that year. Before 1814, the Jewish community in the city buried its deceased in nearby Varel. The cemetery was used not only by the Jews of Oldenburg but also by those of the nearby Elsfleth, Zwischenahn and Wardenburg. The cemetery was enlarged in 1862, and a wall was built around him a few years later. After his son died on 1918, merchant Leo Trommer built a funeral home at the cemetery commemorating his name. The funeral house was unsuccessfully set on fire on Kristallnacht, though its inventory was burned.
  Among those buried in the cemetery are Bernhard Wechsler, who served as the community chief Rabbi between 1841–1874, and David Mannheimer, who served as the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg chief Rabbi at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
  
   
  During World War II, 54 Russian war prisoners were buried in a mass grave in the cemetery area. A memorial stone was put in their honor in 1950. During the years of the war, a small round bunker was built in the cemetery.
  Over the years, the synagogue was desecrated a number of times by antisemites. On May 28, 1935, a number of gravestones were overturned and smashed. On 1938 Kristallnacht, the cemetery was unsuccessfully set on fire. The people who conducted the attack were sentenced in 1949 to a period of six months to one year in jail. On November 19, 2011, six gravestones in the cemetery were painted in white in what appears to be an anti-semitic act. One of the men in charge of the desecration was caught and sentenced to two years suspended sentence. On November 24, 2013, the cemetery was once again desecrated, and swastikas were painted on eight gravestones. In addition, the funeral house was also painted with the word "Jew" and other swastikas.
  The cemetery stopped conducting burials in 2000, and another Jewish cemetery was opened about 5.5 km from the city center in the district Bümmerstede, Sandkruger Street, 26133 Oldenburg.
caption: Rabbi Bernhard Wechsler and his wife Adelaide gravestone
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