Christian persecutors burned members of the community of יהודים YEHUDIM at Windsheim, today Bad Windsheim, on י״ב בתמוז ה׳נ״ח 12th 𝑜𝑓 Tamuz, AM 5058. Its register remembers households across generations, including Golda the elder and the boy Nahmani.1

The wider chronology follows the spread of attacks by Christian mobs and the host-desecration accusations used to justify them. The local register preserves the people murdered; it does not identify every attacker or establish that Rintfleisch personally led this attack.2

What does the complete
memorial register preserve?

The complete surviving applicable register is presented from Siegmund Salfeld’s 1898 edition of the Nürnberger Memorbuch. Each עברית IVRIT passage is followed by a TJD English translation checked against the facsimile and Salfeld’s German rendering. This is a normalized reading transcription: printed wrapping, pointing and note numbers are omitted; abbreviation punctuation is normalized. Names, order, unnamed relatives and textual gaps are retained. Brackets in the original reproduce editorial restorations; English explanatory brackets are TJD’s. Medieval vernacular names sometimes admit more than one reading. R. preserves an honorific without assuming rabbinic ordination; Mistress renders the respectful title for women.

ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:

שרופי וינדשהיים י״ב בתמוז יום ב׳ נח לפרט:

ר׳ יוסף בר נתן וזוגתו מרת יוטלין בת ר׳ יהודה ובנו ר׳ נתן בר יוסף וזוגתו מרת צרויה בת ר׳ מאיר הכהן ובתו מרת מינגוט ושלשה בניה. וחתנו ר׳ שמואל בר שלמה וזוגתו מרת גולדא ובתה. ובתו מרת בילא. ר׳ מאיר בר משה. ברוך בר יואל. ר׳ אברהם בר נתן וזוגתו מרת רחל בת ר׳ נטרונאי ושלשה בניהם. ר׳ אשר בר אלכסנדרי וזוגתו מרת לאה בת ר׳ יצחק ושני בניהם. ר׳ גרשם בר ידידיה וזוגתו מרת אוטיליא ובתה יוטא ובנה. ר׳ חיים בר פסח ובתו. מרת חנה בת ר׳ אברהם וששה בניה. ובתה מרת מינגוט ושני בניה. ר׳ ברוך בר שלמה וזוגתו מרת יוטא בת ר׳ מרדכי. מרת בילקינט ובתה. והנער נחמני בר נתן. מרת גולדא הזקינה ובנה ר׳ יוסף בר שלמה וזוגתו מרת גוטלין בת ר׳ קלונימוס הלוי ושני בניהם. ר׳ יצחק בר יעקב וזוגתו מרת גוטלין בת ר׳ אשר. ר׳ ישראל בר אלכסנדרי הלוי וזוגתו מרת ינטיל בת ר׳ יעקב ובנה. ואחותה מרת רחל בת ר׳ יעקב:3

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

Those burned at Windsheim, 12 Tammuz, Monday, [50]58 in the abbreviated reckoning:

R. Joseph son of Nathan, his wife Mistress Gutlin, daughter of R. Judah, and his son R. Nathan son of Joseph, his wife Mistress Zeruiah, daughter of R. Meir the priest, and his daughter Mistress Mingut and her three children. His son-in-law R. Samuel son of Solomon, his wife Mistress Golda and her daughter. His daughter Mistress Bela. R. Meir son of Moses. Baruch son of Joel. R. Abraham son of Nathan, his wife Mistress Rachel, daughter of R. Natronai, and their three children. R. Asher son of Alexander, his wife Mistress Leah, daughter of R. Isaac, and their two children. R. Gershom son of Jedidiah, his wife Mistress Ottilia, her daughter Jutta and her son. R. Hayyim son of Pessah and his daughter. Mistress Hannah, daughter of R. Abraham, and her six children. Her daughter Mistress Mingut and her two children. R. Baruch son of Solomon and his wife Mistress Jutta, daughter of R. Mordecai. Mistress Belkint and her daughter. The boy Nahmani son of Nathan. Mistress Golda the elder and her son R. Joseph son of Solomon, his wife Mistress Gutlin, daughter of R. Kalonymos the Levite, and their two children. R. Isaac son of Jacob and his wife Mistress Gutlin, daughter of R. Asher. R. Israel son of Alexander the Levite, his wife Mistress Gentil, daughter of R. Jacob, and her son. Her sister Mistress Rachel, daughter of R. Jacob.4

What does the list establish?

The heading calls the victims those burned, giving a specific account of the killing. Hannah’s six children and Mingut’s two children remain in the register even where their personal names are absent. These family relationships preserve the community’s own structure of remembrance. Alemannia Judaica identifies the place as Bad Windsheim and records the 1298 massacre.5

Salfeld explains why the printed continuity of the list requires editorial reconstruction:

ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:

An dieser Stelle sind 13 Pergamentblätter ohne fortlaufende Paginierung eingeheftet, welche erst später in Betracht kommen. Hier ist mit der nach diesen Blättern folgenden Pag. 107 wieder zu beginnen.6

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

At this point thirteen parchment leaves without continuous pagination have been inserted; they will be considered later. Here one must resume with page 107, which follows those leaves.7

The inserted leaves do not end the Windsheim register. The continuation beginning with Belkint belongs with its earlier households, as reproduced here. The edition’s German commentary also confirms that the heading uses those burned where the overview uses the general those killed.8

How is this dated?

The register explicitly supplies י״ב בתמוז ה׳נ״ח 12th 𝑜𝑓 Tamuz, AM 5058. Salfeld prints Monday, 23 June 1298. A fixed-calendar calculation matches that civil date when read as Julian; the calculation tests the pairing rather than supplying independent historical testimony. The article’s placement rests on the dated memorial heading.9

Guided reflections

  • How would stopping at the manuscript’s inserted leaves change whose deaths were remembered?
  • What do Hannah’s and Mingut’s unnamed children reveal about the limits of counting only surviving names?

Footnotes

  1. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 30; German p. 167 ↩
  2. Lotter, Rintfleisch-Verfolgung, 1298, ↩
  3. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 30; German p. 167 ↩
  4. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 30; German p. 167; TJD translation ↩
  5. Alemannia Judaica, Bad Windsheim (Kreis Neustadt an der Aisch – Bad Windsheim): Jüdische Geschichte / Synagoge, ↩
  6. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 30, note 5 ↩
  7. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 30, note 5; TJD translation ↩
  8. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, German p. 167 ↩
  9. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 30; German p. 167 ↩

Works cited

  1. Salfeld, Siegmund. Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches. Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, vol. 3, Berlin, 1898. Rockenhausen entry, pp. 144–145; Pforzheim entry and date analysis, pp. 128–130; Munich entry, p. 21; Nuremberg entry and victim list, pp. 170–180; Rothenburg entry and victim list, pp. 185–190; Weissensee entry and victim list, pp. 215–217; place lists, pp. 231–235; related elegy, pp. 332–334. https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freimann/content/titleinfo/535. Accessed 2026 Aug. 27.
  2. Lotter, Friedrich. Rintfleisch-Verfolgung, 1298. Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, published 26 Oct. 2009. https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Rintfleisch-Verfolgung%2C_1298. Accessed 2026 Aug. 21.
  3. Alemannia Judaica. Bad Windsheim (Kreis Neustadt an der Aisch – Bad Windsheim): Jüdische Geschichte / Synagoge. https://www.alemannia-judaica.de/windsheim_synagoge.htm. Accessed 2026 Sep. 7.