Jewish cemetery in Deutschkreutz

The Jewish cemetery in Deutschkreutz stands on the south-western edge of the village, close to the municipal burial ground. It was established in 1759 and later served as the main burial place for surrounding Jewish communities from the 1840s until 1938. Deutschkreutz itself once housed the largest Jewish community in Burgenland, recognised as one of the Seven Communities under Esterházy protection from 1676. The site holds about forty original gravestones that survived the Second World War, when most were removed in 1941 and some later used for roadblocks. In the 1990s these stones were returned from Vienna’s central cemetery. A mass grave contains roughly 265 Hungarian Jews murdered by the Nazis. Restoration work between 1991 and 2016 repaired walls, reset gravestones and recorded every burial. Visitors walk among rows of weathered sandstone and limestone markers, many inscribed in Hebrew. The cemetery is enclosed by a low stone wall rebuilt in recent years. A separate monument honours the Jews of Zelem. The peaceful setting contrasts with the history it preserves.