If stones could speak
The bombardment of Cologne during World War II uncovered a little known chapter of history in the area surrounding the City Hall: the medieval Jewish Quarter.
The masonry of the outer side wall of the gothic Hansasaal in Cologne City Hall contained fragments of Jewish gravestones like the one shown here, which had been repurposed into door embrasures. They tell a sad chapter of Cologne history. When the Plague decimated Europe’s population in 1348, blame for the tragedy was soon to follow: It was rumoured that Jews had poisoned the wells. Christian residents of the city disregarded the fact that the Jewish population also fell victim to the Plague.
Cologne’s City Council feared a pogrom in early 1349, less due to compassion for the Jewish residents and more due to the fear of upheaval in the city, which would further jeopardise their position (already precarious due to the archbishop). On the evening of 23 August 1349, the elders in the Jewish community gathered to discuss news of the pogroms happening everywhere at the time. Out of desperation, they chose to burn their homes and perish in the flames with their families. Before they could do so, however, the mob stormed the ghetto in the “Cologne St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre”.
The quarter went up in flames, and the majority of the Jewish population died in the massacre. Many killed themselves to avoid being forcibly baptised. The survivors were driven from the city. The Jewish cemetery, located south of the Severinstor on the road to Bonn since the Late Roman period, was destroyed – looters dragged the dead from their graves to search for valuables, and the gravestones were used for building projects in Cologne and the surrounding area (including the archbishop’s castle in Lechenich). Shortly thereafter, the City Council demanded the return of looted goods as they were deemed to be part of the city’s “Jewish heritage”. The archbishop issued the same demand.
In 1350, the city and the archbishop agreed to split these assets. The Duke of Jülich appealed to join in this division, as “his Jews” were counted among the dead. Our gravestone is not directly linked to the events of 1348–1350. It dates to the year 1323, according to the inscription, and is a testament to Jewish life in the city. The stone reads, “Woman Rachel, daughter of R. Schneior, died on Tuesday the 15th of Elul of the year 83 of the sixth millennium. May her soul be bound to eternal life. Amen. Sela.”
The year specified here, 5083, refers to the Jewish calendar, which has counted the years according to its own month system since the creation of the world according to biblical data. Based on our current number system, the world was created in the year 3761 before Christ. Adding 5083 Jewish years to this results in the year 1323. 15 Elul is approximately late August.