First Written: July 18, 2006.
Two of my great-grandmothers, Mina Bach (wife of my great-grandfather Gabriel Bach) and Lina Zeilberger (wife of my great-grandfather Markus Zeilberger) were both the daughters of my great-great-grandfather Viktor Vorchheimer and his wife Marianne. who lived in Thüngen, a small village about 20 km away from Würzburg. After I have already visited the birthplaces of my other great-grandparents, it was time to visit them.
Thanks to the wonders of google, I found out that some Vorchheimers are buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Laudenbach am Main (Stadt Karlstadt), and that the person in charge of it is Georg Schnabel whose E-mail address is georgschnabel at freenet dot de. Since I was about to go to Germany on a professional visit, I thought that it would be nice to spend a day visiting the cemetery and the neighboring village of Thüngen, where both my two great-grandmothers, Mina and Lina grew up. I wrote him E-mail, and to my great delight he kindly agreed to show me around on July 14, 2006.
On july 13, 2006, I took the train from Munich to Würzburg, and there changed to a regional train to Karlstdat. This train happened to be very old-fashioned and it was possible to open the windows and enjoy the breeze, that reminded me of my childhood when I loved to stand in front of an open window in a train (and sometimes even stick my head out). I arrived at Karlstadt (Main) at 10:00pm and walked the ten minutes to the hotel Main Promenade that Georg Schnabel recommended. This is a charming hotel right on the Main river.
The next morning, after breakfast, I walked along the Main river, and explored a little this lovely town. At 9:00am, as agreed, I met Georg at the lobby, and after checking out, he drove me to the cemetery.
On the way to the cemetery, Georg told me, in German, (he claimed that his English is even worse than my German) how he became the care-taker of the Jewish cemetery. Around 1980, someone asked him to recommend a volunteer to take care of the cemetery, to replace the previous care-taker who retired. Georg replied: "if you don't find anyone I can do it", and sure enough, it became him. Georg is really amazing! He knows each and every grave (there are more than 3000 grave-stones), and conducts tours for school-children and the public.
Around 9:15am we arrived at the cemetery. Naturally we first went to see the grave of my great-great-grandfather Viktor Vorchheimer and the grave of my great-great-grandmother Marianne (b. Rindskopf) Vorchheimer. Unfortunately, the Hebrew is all obliterated but the German side is still visible.
Georg explained to me that Jews in Bavaria got last names only in 1814, and the names were picked by the official, who sometimes picked derogatory names. More often they just picked the place's name, and Vorchheimer is a variant of Forchheimer, that hail from Forchheim. It is very likely that all the Vorchheimers were related. Some of them have graves in much better shape.
Some of the Vorchheimers buried there are Nathan Vorchheimer, and also (another) Nathan who was a rabbi and was married to Jeannette. Also Adolf Vorchheimer (Oct. 10, 1861-Sept. 26, 1935), Meir Vorchheimer (1865-1933), Regina Vorchheimer (Sept. 26, 1866- Aug. 9, 1923), Louis Vorchheimer (Aug. 23, 1853- July 9, 1933), and Samuel Vorchheimer (July 7, 1861-Oct. 22, 1933). I am sure that they are all related to me, but unfortunately, I don't know how.
At the entrance of the cemetery there was a "mikve tahara" but, according to Georg, it was soon abandoned since the rabbi declared that it is not kosher to use rain-water, and one had to do it at the river. The cemetery is on a hill, and in the old days it must have been quite an effort to carry the coffin with horse and cart.
There was also the grave of one Dr. Louis Goldschmidt who grew up in that village, but then winded up in far away New Orleans. He died during a visit to his family and was buried with his forefathers.
After the cemetery, Georg drove me to nearby Thüngen. As he took off his kippa he told me jokingly that sometimes he forgets to take it off after a cemetery visit, and then people tease him with : "Here comes the Jew". The first stop at Thüngen was the castle where the current baron lives. We entered the premises and actually met the current baron himself. Georg told me that during the Nazi's reign they were two baron brothers one of them a high-ranking Nazi while the other one a brave Nazi-fighter.
We then went to the town-square where there is a memorial monument for the soldiers who were killed in War War I, that include my relative Leo Vorchheimer, who was missing in action in 1915.
After that we went to the house where Lina and Mina, most probably, grew up. The address is Obergasse 13 (Thüngen). The current inhabitant is Family Kiessling. We didn't meet them, but we met the friendly neighbor from across the street, 73-year-old Wilhelm Hofmann, who remembers quite a bit from the old days, and even knew some Vorchheimers.
A few houses up the street was the synagogue, where currently lives an 83-year-old weaver who asked to remain anonymous. He kindly showed us his house where there are no traces of the synagogue and the main room is used as his workshop.
Another Vorchheimer house is Hauptstrasse 25, that used to be a porcelain shop. Also in that neighborhood, in Hernstrasse 4, was the cheder where the last teacher was "Lehrer" Eschweger. You can still see the indentation on the wall where the mezuza used to be.
The last stop of this moving journey was at Georg Schnabel's house, in Laudenbach (part of Karlstadt). His charming wife, Marlene, served us her delicious nut cake, and also cut a piece for me to take for the road. Georg showed me his office that is really an archive where he keeps records of all the graves and many other material about the area's Jews. He is a true scholar.
I really thank Georg Schnabel, a real hasid umot haolam, for teaching me so much, and letting me experience where great-grandmothers Lina and Mina grew up.