area rose up together against the Jews. First, the Heiligenstadters wanted to stand against them. However, once they learnt that only Jews were to be harmed, they forsook their resistance. Some even took part in the ensuing pogrom. In 1716, the Jews requested lordly protection when news reached Heiligenstadt that a “young Christian girl” in Pretzfeld had been murdered, leading the Jews to fear that they would be the targets of a revenge campaign by those who suspected them. The last relic of Jewish life is the Jewish cemetery on the Berg Kuhlich, mentioned as early as 1608. The last burial here took place about 1900. An unknown witness noted in the 1950s: “Odd things happened at Jewish burials. The dead man or woman was driven to the graveyard on the Kuhlich by way of the Wischberg on a hay cart pulled by a horse. The grave was quickly dug beforehand. The dead were laid in a death shirt – already sewn while the dead were still alive – in a simple, unplaned coffin made without nails or screws by the local cabinetmaker, like a chest, from four boards. A little bag with coins went with the dead. Women, other than the nearest blood kin, had to stay in their dwellings. It was not allowed to give flowers, not even the smallest nosegay. With the customary head covering, the men laid the coffin in the grave, with the dead’s face towards the east. It all happened with great swiftness. Each one present threw three shovelfuls of earth into the grave. The Jewish teacher – in my youth it was the Jewish teacher from Aufseß – meanwhile read from the prayer book the Kadish, the prayer.” Politics The community council is made up of 16 members, listed here by party or voter community affiliation, and also with the number of seats that each holds: CSU 7 SPD-ÜW (Überparteiliche Wählergemeinschaft) 4 WG (Wählergemeinschaft) 3 ZJ (Zukunft Jura) 2 Coat of arms The community's arms show the Archangel Michael with golden wings, red cloak and blue robe, golden helmet with a red tuft of feathers on the head standing on a silver cloud and holding a blue flaming sword in his right hand and a green olive twig in his left. When the outlying communities of Brunn, Burggrub, Hohenpölz, Oberleinleiter, Siegritz, Stücht, Traindorf and Zoggendorf were amalgamated with Heiligenstadt, the new, bigger community