Jewish cemetery, Buttenhausen

[2] Motivated by the desire to stimulate economic activity in the village, he invited twenty-five Jewish families to settle there under his protection.

They are commemorated by a sculpture in the cemetery made from sections of railway track by the Swabian poet and singer-songwriter Thomas Felder.

Since Jews were prevented from obtaining gravestones in the Nazi period, wooden stelae were erected on their graves (examples of which are now displayed in the town hall).

In this, he was supported by former Jewish residents of Buttenhausen domiciled in the United States with whom he made contact after meeting Harry Lindauer (see external link) when the latter revisited his birthplace around 1960.

In the 1970s Ott also discovered by chance a local archive of materials on the village's former Jewish inhabitants which enabled their history to be traced and encouraged further studies.

The Jewish Cemetery at Buttenhausen
Buttenhausen, viewed from the path to the cemetery
Memorial stone at the Jewish Cemetery. Double-click the image for a translation of the inscription.
Memorial erected in 1966 on the site of the Buttenhausen synagogue, which was burnt down on the night of 9–10 November 1938 in the Kristallnacht . It stands next to the path leading to the cemetery