Schmieheim (Kippenheim)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Schmieheim Jewish Cemetery was one of the largest such cemeteries in Baden Germany and today remains a pastoral reminder for the community destroyed by the Nazis.

 

A rich Jewish heritage once existed near the Rhine River border with France in the southern Ortenau kreis (Ortenau District) of Baden-Württemberg (a state of the Federal Republic of Germany). Schmieheim was one of several Jewish Kehila in Baden (as the region was known until after WWII) which lay on the edge of the Black Forest. Schmieheim, with its back to the mountains is the farthest to the east of all of these Jewish villages and located about 30 km north of Freiburg and 40 kilometers southeast of Strasbourg. Schmieheim and the other Jewish Kehila here were small and as a result shared their resources including the kosher butchers, Jewish schools, and the cemetery.  The Jews of the Kehila also frequently intermarried.  Today Schmieheim belongs to the municipality of Kippenheim.

 

Schmieheim is the birthplace of many of our Bernheim ancestors and many of the progenitors of Leopold and other members of our Dreifuss family who began to emigrate years later. The well-preserved cemetery in Schmieheim is also the final resting place for many of our ancestors. Like Altdorf, it is one of our most studied ancestral towns of our family and we have authored the Schmieheim web site dedicated to it, its former Jewish community and cemetery on Jewishgen -The Home of Jewish Genealogy.

 

One of our most famous ancestors, Isaac W. Bernheim was from Schmieheim. Bernheim was a first cousin of our great grandfather, Leopold Dreifuss. I. W. Bernheim was perhaps one of Schmieheim's most famous Jews.  He immigrated to the US in 1867 with only about 4 dollars in his pocket and yet he amassed a large fortune and is remembered mostly for his philanthropy.  His many contributions include the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest which he established in Kentucky 1929.   A brief history of I. W. Bernheim and his family is summarized here.