New visitor center at Mainzer Judensand opens

You're never completely finished anyway. And so it is hardly surprising that the opening of the new visitor center at Mainz Judensand can be officially celebrated on Sunday. And this despite the fact that the six million euro project is far from being completed. For example, there is a lack of car and bus parking spaces near the newly created cemetery site on Mombacher Strasse, which is intended to attract tourists and tour groups from all over the world in the future. The path to the exhibition pavilion and the associated viewing platform located on a steep slope and the associated viewing platform cannot be called “barrier-free”. This also applies to the stone stairs to and from the Neustadt, which have only been tolerably improved.

World Heritage Visitor Center

But despite such imperfection - and the justified criticism of it - it can be said that the restructuring of the Jewish sand, which has now finally been brought out of oblivion, has so far been quite successful. Unlike in Darmstadt, where the Mathildenhöhe was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021, five years later in Mainz there is actually the visitor center associated with the award, where guests can obtain all the necessary information about Jewish life on the Rhine and about the role of the three cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz that were important in the Middle Ages.

The fact that the yew hedge with narrow viewing windows, which was intended as a border, currently has clear gaps is due to the hot summer. And the fact that not all of the 1,700 historical tombstones that were collected for the monument cemetery, which opened in 1926, shine in new splendor is probably due to the financial difficulties of the municipalities, which are now also being complained about in Mainz. What is rather annoying is that a really good idea on the other side of Mombacher Strasse, i.e. at the former freight station, has still not been implemented. A memorial is actually planned there to commemorate the mass deportations under the rule of the National Socialists in the future: around 1,100 Jews from Mainz and Rheinhessen and almost 100 members of the Sinti were sent from there by train to camps - and often to their deaths.

The fact that some things take time has been made clear once again by the redesign of the old Jewish cemetery, which has now been largely completed. So on Sunday the time has finally come: Mainz residents can visit and celebrate their UNESCO World Heritage site from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. with free admission. In addition to guided tours and lots of explanations, the Mainz-style community festival also includes music, food and drinks.