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This project seeks to collect all of the Jewish families from the town of Geisa (Thüringen), Germany.
Saskia Schulz
Traces of Jewish Life in Thuringia
"The following text is an extremely shortened version of a German documentation from 2007 which deals very detailed with Jewish life in Thuringia. It purports to give a historical overview of the topic. The most important towns, villages and places where we can find traces of Jewish life are listed. The German version also contains a lot of pictures, which will not appear here. Of course there is still the possibility to download the German version as well, in order to look at the photographs.
www.thueringen.de/imperia/md/content/lzt/juedische_vergangenheit_buch.pdf
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Geisa
The presence of Jews in Geisa is first attested to between 1571 and 1600, but it is likely that Jews had been living there before. In 1808 all Jews living in Geisa were obliged to get a family name. In 1879 the first Jew was elected into the municipal council.
The Jewish community was in the possession of a cemetery, a school and a synagogue, which was destroyed by a big fire in 1858. Soon a new building was constructed.
The number of the community members decreased throughout the years. On 1933 only 67 Jewish inhabitants remained in Geisa. The new synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis on the 9th November 1938 as well as Jewish shops demolished and the cemetery devastated. The Jewish people were deported in stages between 1941 and 1942. At the location of the former synagogue one can find a memorial plaque.
A famous Jew who lived and worked in Geisa was the teacher Moritz Goldschmidt (1863-1916) who explored the flora of the Rhön Mountains. In order to honour his achievements a memorial plaque was installed in 1922, but destroyed by the Nazis. A new plaque was installed in 1990."
Various other sources of more detailed information - only in German - include:
http://www.jüdische-gemeinden.de/index.php/gemeinden/e-g/696-geisa-thueringen
Also cf.
Der jüdische Friedhof in Geisa (Wartburgkreis)
http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/geisa_friedhof.htm
Features both scenic photos of the cemetery and individual close-ups of a selection of gravestones.