THE JEWISH CEMETERIES VISITED IN EUROPE

The past several posts in this blog were on Jewish and European funerary monuments in Kerala. I had the opportunity to visit a number of historic Jewish graveyards in Europe. Therefore, I thought why not a post on European Jewish cemeteries. To me cemeteries are special as they are densely packed with layers of history and each stone has a different story to offer. I didn't know until recently that there is even a word for a tombstone tourist, a 'Taphophile'!

Most of these Jewish European graveyards were on the outskirts of the main cities and often required extra efforts to find the location. Some were so remotely positioned and unknown even to the locals, that you have to come well prepared in tracing them. This becomes more challenging and exciting specially when you are outside the tourist bubble spots in a non-English speaking country. Usually, I prefer to take long walks and if required public transportation facilities to reach these sites, because I believe this is the best way to know a new country. Traveling and interacting with locals and passing through streets and sites that usually a common tourist just doesn't have chance to know about, is an entirely different experience. 

In this lengthy post, I am planning to upload Jewish cemeteries that I have visited in Europe. I will upload two images from each graveyard, more like a 'Two Photos-One Cemetery' approach, so you get an idea of how diverse they are. At some point of time in future I will write about them, but that has to be a different blog. The cemeteries range from some of the largest Jewish graveyards in the world to those that have been wiped out, and represented by symbolic monuments. However, I will begin this series with a cemetery from Israel, the Jewish homeland. There are several funerary monuments in Israel that I have visited and the details are included in my Israel blogs. As a starting point, no other cemetery comes to my mind other than the 'Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery' in Jerusalem-the most important Jewish graveyard in the world.

Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery, Jerusalem, ISRAEL Facing the Temple Mount, the holiest site of Judaism, this is the oldest existing and the most important Jewish cemetery in the world. The highest estimate puts the number of graves in the cemetery to 150,000 and the lowest to 70,000.

JEWISH CEMETERIES VISITED IN EUROPE 

1) Łódź Jewish Cemetery, Poland

Established in 1892 and spread over 44 hectares (109 acres) with an estimated 180,000 to 230,000 graves, this cemetery is considered to be the largest existing Jewish graveyard in Europe

2) Weißensee Jewish Cemetery, Berlin, GERMANY

Established in 1880, and spread over 42 hectares (103 acres) with 115,100 plus graves, it is considered to be the second largest existing Jewish cemetery in Europe.

3) Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery, Warsaw, POLAND

Established in 1806 and spread to an area of 33 hectares (82 acres) with an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 graves, it is also one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe.

4) Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC

Established in the early 15th century, and functional until 1786, it  is one of the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe. The small cemetery (c. 1 hectare) has around 12,000 visible grave markers, but an estimated 100,000 are believed to be buried beneath several layers underground.

 

5) Old Jewish Cemetery/Remah Cemetery, Krakow, POLAND

Functional from mid-16th century to 1850s, it is also one of the oldest preserved Jewish cemeteries in Europe

 

6) Jewish Cemetery in Cimitero Monumentale di Milano, Milan, ITALY

Opened in 1872, this cemetery has funerary monuments of high artistic value

 7) Old Jewish Cemetery, Užupis, Vilnius, LITHUANIA

Functioned from 1828 to 1939 and around 70,000 were buried. Soon after the War, the entire cemetery was destroyed by the Communist Soviets.The current memorial erected in 2004 using a few remaining previous tombstones marks the original site.

8) The Jewish Cemetery, Große Hamburger Straße, Berlin, GERMANY

Opened in 1672, closed in 1827 and destroyed in 1943, it is the oldest Jewish cemetery of Berlin. Out of the estimated 10,000 Berlin Jews buried here, only 15 gravestones have survived.

9) Jewish Cemetery (Cimitero Ebraico), Pisa, ITALY

 Opened in 1674, the cemetery has burial of mostly Jewish of Hispanic and Portuguese origin

10) Jewish Cemetery in the 'First Cemetery of Athens', GREECE

This small (0.5 acre) Jewish section of the 19th-century 'First Cemetery of Athens' is not functional today and is closed to public.

11) Old Jewish Cemetery, Magasini Street, Tallin, ESTONIA

Nothing remains from the cemetery which was destroyed by the Soviet authorities in 1960s and converted into a garage and a parking lot. The commemorative marble slab in Estonian reads: “Here was the Jewish cemetery from the eighteenth century until the end of the 1960s.” Way outside Tallin city center, the cemetery location was very hard to find.

12) Jewish Cemetery in the 'Third Cemetery of Athens', Nikaia, GREECE

This 5-acre functional Jewish cemetery became active after World War II.

13) Vilijampole Jewish Cemetery, Kaunas, LITHUANIA

This 17th century Jewish cemetery was later destroyed by the the Soviets after the World War II. Positioned in a remote area, the cemetery was also difficult to locate.
 

 14) The New Jewish Cemetery (Cmentarz Zydowski), Midowa Street, Krakow, POLAND

 

Established in 1800, the 11-acred cemetery was destroyed during WW-II, but tidied up in 1957.
 

15)  Jewish Cemetery, Sofienbergparken, Oslo, NORWAY

The first Jewish cemetery in Norway; functional in the period, 1869-1917; has 197 graves; renovated in 1997-98.
 

16) Old Jewish Cemetery, Lublin, POLAND 

Established in 1541 (probable) the graveyard is considered to be the oldest Jewish cemetery preserved in Poland. I had to skip the cemetery as the conditions for getting inside were very stringent.
 

17) Jewish Cemetery, Gdansk (Danzig), POLAND

The 6-acre cemetery dates from 1860s, but was destroyed after 1950s, restored in 2007. On the top of a slanting hilly area, the cemetery was one of the toughest to locate.
 

18) Jewish Cemetery, Głogowska 26A, Poznan, POLAND

Established in 1804; completely destroyed during WW-II; reconstructed partially in 2007-08; access only by previous arrangement.
 

19) The New Jewish Cemetery, Helsinki, FINLAND

Established in 1895; the cemetery chapel shown here was built in 1951.

20) Jewish Section in the Eastern Cemetery (Östra Kyrkogården) of Gothenburg, SWEDEN

The small Jewish section is at the southern end of this 63-acre cemetery established in 1860.

21) Helsfyr Jewish Cemetery in Østre Gravlund, Oslo, NORWAY

The Jewish cemetery is part of the 35-acre Østre Gravlund (est. 1892). The 2.6 acre Jewish cemetery came into use in 1917 and is still functional.

22) The New Jewish Cemetery, Thessaloniki, GREECE

The 4-acre cemetery was established after World War-II.

23) Fragments of the Jewish Gravestones Preserved in the 4th-century Byzantine Monument Rotunda, Thessalonikki, GREECE.

These tombstone fragments are from the historic old Jewish Cemetery of Thessalonikki. The 2000 year old cemetery had an estimated 300,000 to 350,000 gravestones and was spread in an area of c. 85 acres! The entire cemetery was vandalized and obliterated during the Nazi regime in 1942-43 and the headstones were used for different purposes. Today, only 1,230 tombstones (i.e. 0.4%) have survived!

24) Brodno Jewish Cemetery, Praga, Warsaw, POLAND

An estimated 300,000 Jews were buried here, but only 3,000 graves remain today.

25) Jewish Section in Miłostowo Cemetery, Poznan, POLAND

Created for the Jewish community in 1958. Many of the tombstones are from destroyed Jewish cemeteries. 

26)  Old  Jewish Cemetery of Podgórze near Płaszów Concentration Camp, Krakow, POLAND

Established in 1887, the cemetery is in ruins now. Płaszów  is the dreadful concentration camp of Schindler's List.

27) New Jewish Cemetery of Podgórze, Krakow, POLAND

The large pile of rubble is the monumental pre-burial hall of the new Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis

28) Tombstones from the destroyed Jewish cemetery of Polish town Turek preserved in Chelmno, POLAND

These gravestones are placed in Chelmno in 1994 by Israeli descendants of Turek as a tribute to their ancestors. Established in late 1941, Chełmno was the first extermination camp where according to an estimate, 350,000 Jews were murdered. Ironically, all the 6 extermination camps of Nazi Germany were in Poland.

I started this series with an ancient cemetery from Jerusalem so I will end with a modern cemetery from the same city. The Mount Herzl Cemetery is Israel's National Cemetery and National Military Cemetery. The graveyard is named after Theodor Herzl, the Father of Zionism. Apart from Herzl's tomb, the cemetery holds the graves of several former Prime Ministers, Presidents and important Political and Military Leaders of Israel.

Mount Herzl Jewish Cemetery, Jerusalem, ISRAEL

The upper photograph is the Tomb of Thedor Herzl.

 

Thus, I have covered 28 Jewish cemeteries across 10 different European countries and 2 cemeteries from Israel, but this is just the tip of an iceberg. There are about 10,000 known Jewish burial sites in 46 European countries, according to the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative! Nonetheless, visit to these cemeteries gave me an idea of how diverse and historically fascinating they can be.