The massacre at Ochsenfurt occurred during the night beginning י״ח בתמוז ה׳נ״ח 18th 𝑜𝑓 Tamuz, AM 5058. The memorial record includes the elder and scholar Azriel, families with unnamed children, and a later marginal addition whose names remain recoverable.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.

Main register

ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:

הרוגי אוחשנוורט י״ח בתמוז ליל א׳ נח לפרט:

הזקן החבר ר׳ עזריאל בר יעקב הלוי ובתו מרת ריחצא וכלתו מרת ורימוט בת ר׳ גרשם. ר׳ קלונימוס בר פסח ובנו ר׳ משה ור׳ משה בן ר׳ זומרלין. (הזקן ר׳ מאיר בר אורי וזוגתו מרת גוטלין ובנו ר׳ משה הבחור ובתה מרת וונא. מרת ריחצא וחמשה בנים. ר׳ יהונתן בר עזריאל וזוגתו מרת ריחצא ובנו יחיאל ובתו מרת חנה ..... בר עזריאל הלוי וזוגתו.) ר׳ יעקב בר משה ובנו יצחק ואחותו מרת ברונא ובתה. מרת ליליא ובתה. ושלשה בני ר׳ טרישטלין ורומלין ושלמה ויעקב ובתו מרת צריט ובתה. ומרת יוטא בת ר׳ זילקמן:3

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

Those killed at Ochsenfurt, 18 Tammuz, the night beginning Sunday, [50]58 in the abbreviated reckoning:

The elder and scholar R. Azriel son of Jacob the Levite, his daughter Mistress Rihza and his daughter-in-law Mistress Vromut, daughter of R. Gershom. R. Kalonymos son of Pessah and his son R. Moses, and R. Moses son of R. Zomerlin. (The elder R. Meir son of Uri, his wife Mistress Gutlin, his son R. Moses the young man, and her daughter Mistress Wunna. Mistress Rihza and five children. R. Jonathan son of Azriel, his wife Mistress Rihza, his son Jehiel and his daughter Mistress Hannah [a gap of five or six words] son of Azriel the Levite and his wife.) R. Jacob son of Moses, his son Isaac, and his sister Mistress Bruna and her daughter. Mistress Lilia and her daughter. The three sons of R. Trostlin: Vromlin, Solomon and Jacob, and his daughter Mistress Zaret and her daughter. Mistress Jutta, daughter of R. Zilkman.4

Legible marginal addition

ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:

ר׳ נתן בן החבר ר׳ יעקב וזוגתו (מרת) ריחצא וטרישטלין הנער ובתו (מרת) פורלין וב׳ בניה:5

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

R. Nathan son of the scholar R. Jacob, his wife (Mistress) Rihza, the boy Trostlin, and his daughter (Mistress) Porlin and her two children.6

What does the list establish?

The short register contains several layers of remembrance. The parenthesized households were added by a later hand; a further household appears in the margin. Including them keeps recoverable victims visible without presenting all the writing as one uninterrupted original entry. The Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte independently places the 1298 persecution at Ochsenfurt.7

Salfeld identifies physical damage that limits what can now be recovered:

ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:

Das in () Eingeschlossene ist Zusatz einer jüngeren Hand. Hinter dem Namen «Hanna» fehlen 5–6 Wörter, die beim Einbinden fortgeschnitten sind.8

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

The material enclosed in parentheses is an addition by a later hand. After the name “Hannah,” five or six words are missing; they were cut away during binding.9

The gap is a loss in the witness, not permission to invent a name or attach the remaining patronymic to Hannah. Salfeld also says that other names on the left margin could no longer be deciphered. The legible right-margin addition is reproduced separately above.10

How is this dated?

The heading gives 18 Tamuz, the night beginning Sunday, year 58 in the abbreviated reckoning: י״ח בתמוז ה׳נ״ח 18th 𝑜𝑓 Tamuz, AM 5058. Salfeld describes the night from Saturday to Sunday and prints 29 June 1298. The fixed-calendar pairing is Sunday, 29 June Julian / 6 July Gregorian; the named night begins on the preceding civil evening, 28 June Julian. A civil reference to 28 June can therefore describe the opening evening without changing the עברית IVRIT date.11

Guided reflections

  • Why must the later marginal household remain visible even though it was added after the main list?
  • How does the night beginning Sunday explain two adjacent civil dates without creating two massacres?

Footnotes

  1. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 31; German p. 169 ↩
  2. Lotter, Rintfleisch-Verfolgung, 1298, ↩
  3. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 31; German p. 169 ↩
  4. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 31; German p. 169; TJD translation ↩
  5. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 31, note 9; German p. 169 ↩
  6. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 31, note 9; German p. 169; TJD translation ↩
  7. Charell, Ochsenfurt (Gemeinde), ↩
  8. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, German p. 169 ↩
  9. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, German p. 169; TJD translation ↩
  10. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 31, notes 6–9; German p. 169 ↩
  11. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, Hebrew p. 31; German p. 169 ↩

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. Charell, Patrick. Ochsenfurt (Gemeinde). Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte. Jüdisches Leben in Bayern. https://hdbg.eu/juedisches_leben/gemeinde/ochsenfurt/696. Accessed 2026 Sep. 7.