First Jewish Cemetery Dedicated in West Berlin; Jews to Be Reburied

The first Jewish cemetery in the Western sectors of this divided city was dedicated here by the Chief Rabbi of Hesse, Dr. Emil Lichtigfeld. The new burial site was purchased from the Berlin municipality. It is located off Heerstrasse, in the Charlottenburg section. Some 50 provisionally buried in non-Jewish municipal cemeteries during the past few years are to be reburied here.

Ever since the nineteenth century, the Jewish Community of Berlin maintained vast cemeteries at Weissensee, in the Eastern part of the city. Burials continued to take place there all through the Nazi regime and in the immediate postwar era. This practice became difficult in recent years, however, after the East-West split and the 1952 anti-Semitic campaign in East Germany. This led to the establishment of two separate communities, with the one in East Berlin holding title to the Weissensee burial ground.