Coat of arms of SalzburgThe fourth largest city in Austria and capital of the federal state of Salzburg with world famous baroque architecture is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. This Alpine setting with three universities is the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Allied bombing destroyed 7,600 houses and killed 550 inhabitants and demolished the town's bridges and the dome of the cathedral, but much of its Baroque architecture remained intact. American troops entered Salzburg on May 5, 1945. Several DP camps were in the city following World War II: Riedenburg, Camp Herzl (Franz-Josefs-Kaserne), Camp Mülln, Bet Bialik, Bet Trumpeldor, and New Palestine. Salzburg was the centre of the American-occupied area in Austria. [July 2009]

Jewish Salzburg goes back to the days of the Roman Empire, when the city was called „Iuvavum". In the 8th century. Bishop Arno of Salzburg (785-871),  a friend and advisor to Emperor Charlemagne, was treated by a Jewish physician as recorded ina "medicum iudaicum", the oldest record ofr Jews in Salzburg in post-Roman times. 12th century references to the "Judengasse" as an extension of the world-famous Getreidegasse and near the cathedral was a busy shopping street and still anl attraction in Salzburg. The house in the Judengasse 15 was a house of prayer and a synagogue recorded in1370. Later, the site became the pub "Höllbräu" and now hosts a 5-star hotel. in 1492, Jews of Salzburg were burnt near today's Müllnerbräu and banned from settling in Salzburg until 1868. In 1893, a synagogue built at Lasserstraße 8 still exists and is in active use. In 1894, a Jewish cemetery built in Aigen stll exists. In 1885, Theodor Herzl,  Jewish Austrian lawyer, journalist and father of the Zionist movement,  trained at Salzburg's province court. He experienced a great deal of anti-Semitism although others did not and actively contributed to the cultural and intellectual life of the city such as historian Adolf Altmann, dramatist Max Reinhardt , and poet Hugo von Hoffmannsthal who founded the Salzburg Festival. About 100 000 Jewish Austrians left the country just before WWII, often abandoning all they owned. About 70,000 Jewish Austrians were murdered in concentration camps. Salzburg's Jewish community never recovered remaining about 100 people although, the synagogue in Lasserstraße 8 is in active use also by tourists and students. Services are held on Jewish holidays, Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. [July 2009]

CEMETERY: Judischer Friedhof Salzburg at Uferstrasse 47 near the east bank of the river almost at the southern limit of the city (just south of the intersection of Uferstrasse and Valkenauerstrasse. The chevra kadisha was founded in 1893 on land in what was then the independent village of Aigen, now a district in the city of Salzburg and one of the 24 districts in which Salzburg is organized on the Salzach river ito the west and the municipality of Elsbethen to the south. After deeming the site of "no anthropological value," the Nazi authorities sold it to Maria Frenkenberger, the former caretaker. She sold 68 of 100 gravestones and turned the beit tahara into a cow-barn and pastured animals in the cemetery. In August 1945, the American forces took the desecrated cemetery with filth covering the graves, annulled the sale to Frau Frenkenberger with an Army report by shocked American investigators. The US army returned the cemetery to the reconstituted Jewish Community. The city of Salzburg donated memorial as an apology for the vandalization that lists the names and dates of all those buried before 1939 whose markers were not restored. Visiting hours: 10am to 4pm daily Sunday - Friday. photos and history. history. 411 burials at JOWBR.  [July 2009]

Last Updated on Saturday, 31 July 2010 18:14