Former Jewish Cemetery

The site of the current city park was once home to the Jewish Cemetery. Its history is linked to the establishment of the Jewish community in Szczecin in 1816. Initially, members of the Jewish community buried their deceased in Gryfino until they obtained permission from Szczecin to purchase a small plot of land at the intersection of Gorki and Ojca Beyzyma Streets. The cemetery originally covered 173^m², but over the years it expanded to as much as 20,000^m² through the gradual purchase of additional land from the city authorities, which was subsequently designated for burials. In 1938, during “Kristallnacht” between November 9 and 10, the Nazis organized an attack on the synagogue on Dworcowa Street as well as on the cemetery. They destroyed the funeral home and damaged many headstones, contributing to the desecration of this sacred site. After the war, the cemetery was handed over to the Jewish community, but burials there were prohibited. However, Jews routinely violated this ban. This led to the closure of the cemetery in 1962 and the transfer of the remains to plots at the Central Cemetery in 1982, following their prior exhumation. This sparked considerable controversy due to the fact that a Jewish cemetery is a “sacred” space for Jews, and their religion does not permit the relocation of their ancestors’ final resting places. Currently, the cemetery contains the remains of matzevot (Jewish tombstones), which serve as a lapidarium and commemorate the fact that a Jewish cemetery once existed here. The gravedigger’s house on Ojca Beyzyma Street has also survived to the present day. The lapidarium is in very good condition, and the Jewish community takes care of it as well as the historical memory of the site. It is worth stopping here for a moment to reflect on the grim history of the Holocaust and that of the entire “Chosen People.”