“Water surrounds it.” That’s the first thing you might notice about Judenfriedhof Berne. This Jewish cemetery in Berne is a place of history and remembrance.
Judenfriedhof Berne occupies about 810 square meters in the district Wesermarsch. Louis Koopmann established it in 1895. He used part of his own Molkereiwiese for it. This Molkereiwiese was near today’s B74 highway in Ranzenbüttel. A ditch fully separates the cemetery from the pasture.
Initially, the cemetery was only for the Koopmann family. But authorities demanded that all Jewish citizens could be buried here. Before 1895, Berne Jews buried their dead in Varel-Hohenberge. They also used cemeteries in Delmenhorst and Wildeshausen.
The oldest gravestone in Wildeshausen belongs to Eljukam B. R. Jhuda Koopmann from Berne. He died in 1787. The oldest gravestone at Judenfriedhof Berne belongs to its founder, Louis Koopmann. A final burial occurred in 1928 for Albert Koopmann.
By 1933, only 15 people remained in Berne’s synagogue community. They belonged to three families. The community dissolved in 1938. The synagogue on Lange Strasse was sold and became a house.
The cemetery was privately owned by the Koopmann family from 1895 to 2014. Ernest Koopmann, Louis Koopmann’s great-grandson, owned it last. He lived in the USA. In 2014, it was handed over to the Landesverband der Jüdischen Gemeinden von Niedersachsen.
During the Nazi era, the cemetery suffered desecration. Some reports claim complete destruction by Nazis. Other accounts suggest the damage is uncertain. In 1946, the district Wesermarsch wrote that Nazis had completely destroyed the Jewish cemetery.
The community of Stedingen spent Reichsmark to restore the cemetery in 1946. They repaired graves, fencing, and the entrance gate. In 1950, Lower Saxony carried out further restoration work.
Ella Türk, a Koopmann by birth, cared for the cemetery after returning from the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Six gravestones bear names. One gravestone fragment lacks a name. These stones commemorate Louis Koopmann who died in 1859, Amalie Koopmann, Friederike Frank, Louis Frank, Rosi Goldstein, Jacob Goldstein, Leopold Koopmann, Pauline Meyer, Ernst Koopmann, Albert Koopmann, Sara Koopmann and Ida Meyer.
The inscription for Leopold and Sara Koopmann remembers their son Ernst Koopmann. He fell in France on September 25, 1915. Sara Koopmann died in the Theresienstadt ghetto on September 6, 1942. Ida Koopmann also died in Theresienstadt on March 1, 1943.
Judenfriedhof Berne stands as a testament to a community’s history. It tells a story of family, faith, and resilience in the face of adversity. Take a moment to reflect on the lives remembered here. Consider the journey of the Koopmann family and the broader Jewish community of Berne.