There are three active and two inactive cemeteries in Berlin:
Cemetery of Adass Jisroel. The small Orthodox community Adass Jisroel founded it´s own cemetery in Berlin Weißensee in 1878. After the desecration by the Nazis, it was re-established in 1985. Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer, the community’s first rabbi and founder of Modern Orthodox Judaism is buries there.
Heerstrasse cemetery. After the 1953 split of the Jewish community in an East and a West community, the latter established this cemetery in November 1955.
Grosse Hamburger Strasse. It is the oldest of Berlin’s Jewish cemeteries and was in use between 1672 and 1827. Several prominent members of Berlin’s Jewish community, including the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), Veitel Heine Ephraim (1703-1775), the coin- and silver-trader Daniel Itzig (1725-1799) and the physician and philosopher Marcus Herz (1747-1803) are buried there. It was desecrated and utterly destroyed by the Nazis in 1943. In April 1945, it was used as a mass grave for about 3,000 soldiers and civilians killed during Allied air raids. East Berlin’s government removed the remaining Jewish gravestones in the 1970s and created a "park". Today, it is cared for by the Jewish community again. A symbolic tombstone honours Moses Mendelssohn and some recovered tombstones line the walls. The entrance area displays a memorial originally designed for the the victims of the women's concentration camp Ravensbrück.
Schönhauser Allee. The cemetery with more than 25,000 graves was used after the closure of the Grosse Hamburger Strasse between 1827 and 1880 (some interments continued to take place especially in family plots and crypts). It contains graves from all walks of life, from the well known representatives of Jewish life and Berlin arts and culture, up to the poor, unnamed residents.Prominent members of the community that are buried there with representative and artfully constructed tombstones include the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864), the artist Max Lieberman (1847-1935), the banker and financial advisor of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Gerson von Bleichröder (1822-1893), and the banker Joseph Mendelssohn (1770-1848) to name but a few. The cemetery was never destroyed by the Nazis. During the final weeks of World War II, German soldiers deserting the army hid there, only to be discovered and executed by the Gestapo.
Weissensee. It is the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe with approximately 115,000 graves. It opened in 1880 and remains in use. Like in Schönhauser Allee people of all walks of life are buried there. Well-known people include the scholar and philosopher Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), the composer Louis Lewandowski (1821-1894), the painter Lesser Ury (1861-1931), the publisher Samuel Fischer (1859-1934). The poet and former German legislator Stefan Heym (1913-2001), who died in Israel, was buried there. Herbert Baum (1912-1942) led a Jewish resistance group against the Nazis. A memorial by the National Association of Jewish Combat Soldiers (Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten) was erected in 1927 to commemorate more than 12,000 German Jewish soldiers who had fought in World War I and are buried there.
