Rintfleisch-Pogrom Memorial, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
This stone commemorates the so-called ‘Rintfleisch-Pogrom’ which almost extinguished the entire Jewish community in July 1298. Under the pretext of an alleged sacrilege by the Jews against the communion wafer, an impoverished butcher or executioner by the name of Rintfleisch, from nearby Rottingen, rampaged through Franconia, with the sole purpose of killing Jews. 450 Jewish citizens from Rothenburg took refuge in the former imperial castle (from the Staufer period), but to no avail: the Jewish adults and children were slain and burned by their Christian neighbours.
A survivor wrote the Hebrew lament: With a bitter soul a bitter lament …, with which lines, the Rothenburg artist Peter Nedwal inscribed this monument in 1998. The foundations of the chapel St. Blasius still contain original parts of the old Staufer castle. Inside a memorial is dedicated to the memory of those who died in the course of the two world wars, including two Jewish participants in WW I among them: Hans Lbwenthal and Moritz Gottlob.