Jewish Cemetery, Neustadt in Holstein

Over 100 Jewish women, men, and children from Germany and Eastern European countries who were persecuted under National Socialism are buried in this historic cemetery.
Most of the victims had been deported from the Stutthof concentration camp across the Baltic Sea to Lübeck Bay in 1945. On May 3, 1945, shortly before the bombing of the concentration camp ships “Cap Arcona” and “Thielbek” and the liberation of Neustadt by the British Army, German SS and Navy soldiers, as well as police officers, murdered hundreds of these concentration camp prisoners on the beach in Neustadt. Others died later from the effects of concentration camp imprisonment and deportation.
The Jewish Committee of the Neustadt Displaced Persons Camp established the cemetery in 1946 and arranged for the reburial of remains from mass graves on the beach and from the cemetery of the state hospital. The dedication took place on January 5, 1947, and the last burial occurred in October 1947.

The cemetery is open to the public. It is a place of peace and remembrance, and its dignity must be respected. Visitors are not permitted to step on the graves or touch the headstones. Instead of flowers, small stones are placed on the graves. Visitors should wear appropriate clothing; male visitors—both young and old—should wear a head covering. The cemetery is not to be entered on Shabbat (Saturday), on Jewish holidays, or after sunset. A list and explanation of Jewish holidays and memorial days can be found here, and the exact dates here. Eating, drinking, or smoking is not permitted in the cemetery, and no animals are allowed. Disturbing the peace of the dead is a criminal offense (§ 168 StGB).

Owner: Evangelical Lutheran Parish of Neustadt in Holstein; Cemetery maintenance: City of Neustadt in Holstein; nearest Jewish community: Jewish Community of Lübeck e. V., a member of the Jewish Community of Schleswig-Holstein (K.d.ö.R.)

The cemetery, approximately 15 meters wide and 20 meters deep, is located on the edge of the Protestant parish cemetery and is surrounded and separated from it on three sides by a hedge. Access is through a gate between brick pillars in a wall along the grass path. At the time of its dedication, the cemetery was completely surrounded by a wall, which, however, was partially replaced by the hedge due to structural damage.
In a central location at the cemetery entrance stands a memorial, on the front of which, beneath a Star of David, the following text is inscribed in Hebrew: “In memory of the saints of Neustadt who were murdered by the Nazis, human victims on Thursday, 20 Iyar 5702 [May 3, 1945] […], also the day of the traitors’ defeat. The memorial stone is a sign to the children of Israel for remembrance, to the children of the Nazis for shame.” (Excerpt) Additional texts in German and English appear on the sides; the German text reads: “In memory of the Jewish men and women who lost their lives as victims of Nazi persecution. The majority of those buried here died on the day of the Allied troops’ entry into Neustadt/Holstein on May 3, 1945.”
There are a total of 103 gravestones in the cemetery. With a few exceptions, men and women are buried separately—the women predominantly on the left side, the men on the right; the number of women buried here is greater. On the right side of the cemetery, there are also two gravestones for children’s graves.  
The gravestones are mostly uniform and simply designed. Typical decorations such as palm motifs symbolize hope and redemption. The inscriptions on the gravestones document the fates of the deceased in Hebrew, German, and English and, in some cases, provide clues to their origins. Some of the graves bear no names, only the concentration camp prisoner numbers of the deceased. Several gravestones with a different design, commissioned by relatives and crafted by a local stonemason, stand out. In some cases, a cross is used here as a symbol of the date of death, which is unusual in Jewish cemeteries.

On May 3, 1945, shortly before the end of World War II, Neustadt in Holstein and Neustadt Bay became the scene of Nazi crimes and a maritime disaster resulting from the bombing of the ships “Cap Arcona” and “Thielbek,” which were carrying concentration camp prisoners. The SS had transported prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp (near Danzig)—men, women,
and children of various nationalities, including many Jews—across the Baltic Sea to Lübeck Bay on two barges. After initially mooring at the “Thielbek,” these barges eventually landed on the beach near the pilot house between Neustadt and Pelzerhaken. Hundreds of concentration camp prisoners managed to reach land. There and on the barges, SS and naval soldiers as well as police officers, alerted by the local population, shot many of them on the morning of May 3; others were killed on their way to the naval barracks on the Wieksberg. 
Many of those murdered were initially buried in a mass grave near the landing site of the barges. This burial site on what is now Stutthofweg became an official cemetery in 1946. The British military authorities also had the bodies washed ashore from the shipwrecks of the “Cap Arcona” and the “Thielbek”—which had occurred on the afternoon of May 3—reburied there. In 1947, a memorial was erected there, and in 1948, it was officially inaugurated as a memorial cemetery. 
Parallel to the establishment of the memorial cemetery on the beach, the Jewish committee of the Neustadt Displaced Persons Camp advocated for the dignified burial of Jewish deceased—who had previously been interred in the mass grave at the pilot house, in other individual and mass graves on the beach, and in the cemetery of the state hospital—in a cemetery of their own. As early as August 1945, purchase negotiations took place with the Protestant parish of Neustadt regarding a portion of the cemetery grounds on Grasweg.
In the second half of 1946, the first gravestones were erected. On January 5, 1947, the cemetery was finally inaugurated, and a detailed report on the event appeared in the Jewish newspaper “Unzer Sztyme,” which was published at the Belsen DP camp. According to the report, “at the Neustadt DP camp, hundreds of Jews from Neustadt and the surrounding towns and villages, as well as delegations from other national committees, had gathered with wreaths and formed a funeral procession. In solemn silence, the procession, with the delegations at the head, made its way through the city to the memorial service at the Jewish cemetery.”1 There, Rabbi Joel Halperin and Paul Trepmann of the Central Committee of Jews in the British-occupied zone spoke, as well as representatives of the city of Neustadt in Holstein. 

Those buried here came from Germany and several Eastern European countries. All were victims of Nazi persecution. For weeks and months after May 3, 1945, Jewish patients at the Neustadt State Hospital and Jewish residents of the DP camp continued to die from the health consequences of concentration camp imprisonment and deportation, and were buried in the Jewish cemetery. The last burial at this cemetery took place in October 1947.

The Jewish cemetery is designated as a historic monument under the Schleswig-Holstein Monument Protection Act and is protected under the War Graves Act. It is maintained by the city of Neustadt in Holstein and receives special attention on two key commemorative days: May 3, the anniversary of the Cap Arcona disaster, and Remembrance Day. Every year, the Amicale Internationale KZ-Neuengamme and the city of Neustadt organize a memorial service at the Cap Arcona Memorial Cemetery. On the same day, the deceased are commemorated at the Jewish cemetery, where the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Lübeck recites the prayer for the dead.

The cemetery has been the target of anti-Semitic attacks on multiple occasions. Particularly serious incidents occurred in 2003 and 2013. In May 2003, several gravestones were damaged and defaced with far-right slogans. The perpetrators, two young men from Neustadt and Cismar, were identified in April 2005. In 2013, another desecration took place: Between April 30 and May 2, seven gravestones were knocked over and damaged, an incident linked to the memorial ceremony on May 3. However, the perpetrators could not be identified. 

By 2028, a modern documentation center will be built in the city center of Neustadt in Holstein, next to the zeiTTor Museum, featuring an exhibition on the events of May 3, 1945. The goal is to place these events in their historical context, to portray the fates of victims and survivors, to examine the roles of perpetrators and bystanders, and to document the culture of remembrance since 1945.

In parallel with the documentation center, a digital platform is being developed: the “Cap Arcona Portal.” It is intended to offer a comprehensive online educational resource and strengthen connections with other memorial sites.

Further information about the Documentation Center can be found on the website of the City of Neustadt in Holstein: https://www.stadt-neustadt.de/Kultur-Tourismus/Museen/Museum-Cap-Arcona/#Dokumentationszentrum

The project is funded by the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Schleswig-Holstein, and the Schleswig-Holstein Memorial Sites Community Foundation.

Text: Ela Kaya; Edited by: Dietrich Mau, Stefan Nies, Dr. Helge-Fabien Hertz
This text was produced as part of the “Steinerne Zeugen” project of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History at the University of Duisburg-Essen in cooperation with the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments of Schleswig-Holstein, the Jewish Community of Lübeck e. V., the Jewish Community of Schleswig-Holstein K.d.ö.R., and the City of Neustadt in Holstein. The content was developed by students at the University of Kiel.

Ela Kaya,
Student at Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (CAU) majoring in English and History.

Dietrich Mau,
Regional researcher from Neustadt in Holstein

Stefan Nies,
Historian and curator of the Cap Arcona Documentation Center in Neustadt. Owner of the Office for History in Hamburg; works for museums, memorial sites, and historic preservation.

Dr. Helge-Fabien Hertz
Research associate at the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History at the University of Duisburg-Essen and lecturer at CAU.

Jochims-Bozic, Sigrun, „Lübeck ist nur eine kurze Station auf dem jüdischen Wanderweg“. Jüdisches Leben in Schleswig-Holstein 1945-1950 (Reihe Dokumente, Texte, Materialien, Bd. 51), Berlin 2004

Mau, Dietrich, Wir besuchen den jüdischen Friedhof in Neustadt, in: Gedenken Bedenken – Informationen zur Erinnerungskultur im Bereich der Nordkirche, Nr. 6, Januar 2025