Stadt Selters WW - Largest Jewish cemetery in the Westerwald
With 143 graves, the Jewish cemetery in Selters is by far the largest of eleven Jewish cemeteries in the Westerwald.
The cemetery is located south of the village on a wooded hill in the so-called "Hahnwald" between the country roads L 304 and L 267 and can be reached via the Wachtweg. In 1991 the cemetery was put under monumental protection. It has existed since 1849 at the latest and bears witness to a lively Jewish life in the region. Between 1870 and 1938 people from the villages of Selters, Vielbach, Mogendorf, Quirnbach and Maxsain were buried here. The epitaphs are partly written in Hebrew. Jews had lived in Selters for over 400 years. In 1820 there were 62 Jews, which corresponded to almost 10 percent of the population. With the rise of the National Socialists, the Jews were increasingly ousted from public life. In 1933 a Jewish councillor was removed from the municipal council, and on 10 November 1938 the Selters synagogue burned down. The Jewish citizens were torn from their houses and beds at night and abused. 36 Selters Jews died in the extermination camps in 1933. On 3 October 1939 Simon left Danzig with his family Selters, the place was thus "free of Jews" and 350 years of Jewish life in Selters had been extinguished. Another still visible witness of Jewish life is the Mikwah in the Bahnhofstraße
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