The Jewish cemetery on Gwarna Street
This Jewish cemetery was established in 1761 and operated until 1856, when the Old Jewish Cemetery was opened. The cemetery was opened by Rabbi Joseph Jonas Fränckel, who was buried there thirty years later. Part of the cemetery was closed by the Nazis before the war, and the other by the communists, as a result only a few matzevot survived from the historic necropolis. One of them can be seen on the wall of St. Maurycy Church, and the rest were transported to the New Jewish Cemetery. Many eminent figures of that era were buried at the cemetery – including the rabbis of Wroclaw and Silesia, scholars, writers, teachers and doctors, social activists and founders of the Jewish Theological Seminary. When the cemetery was opened, it turned out there is a stone with an inscription placed on it, which was to be a warning for future generations: Whoever disturbs this place of peace will be struck with an ax, the ax will cut his hand if he desecrates the grave here. Currently, there is no trace of the cemetery – a hotel, tennis courts and residential buildings are located in this place.
The Jewish Cemetery on Gwarna Street (Poloniae Amici)
The Old Jewish Cemetery on Ślężna Street
When Rabbi Abraham Geiger was blessing the land of the new cemetery of the growing Jewish community in Wroclaw, he did not know that a century would pass and the world he knew would fall into ruins. The first burial at the Old Jewish Cemetery took place in 1856, and the last one in 1942. When the cemetery was established, its walls were still outside the city limits. It quickly became a burial place for thousands of Wroclaw Jews, and today it is an extraordinary monument and, paradoxically, a testimony of life.
In order to explain the uniqueness of this cemetery on the map of Poland, it is necessary to emphasize the assimilation processes that began in the Jewish Enlightenment movement. The Haskalah, initiated in Germany, postulated the departure of Jews from traditional life and bringing them closer to other nations through assimilation processes. The social and moral changes of the diaspora can also be seen in the cemetery – they were expressed, for example, by German or bilingual tombstone inscriptions, a rich and non-traditional form of monuments, sometimes completely breaking with Jewish symbolism for the benefit of universalism.
About twelve thousand tombstones are characterized by significant variety, which may indicate not only the size of the Jewish community, but also its diversity and growing wealth. Among the tombstones there are both traditional and modern, modest and extremely extensive, emphasizing the profession, education, social position or national affiliation. The oldest monuments are typical stone matzevot with Hebrew inscriptions, but those that appeared later were often built in accordance with secular architectural trends: ancient, medieval (neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque buildings), Renaissance, Neo-Baroque, Classicist, Art Nouveau or Moorish architecture typical of Sephardic Jews. The Jewish necropolis also comprises majestic mausoleums, family tombs and magnificent sarcophagi. There are also medieval matzevas built into the cemetery wall, which are among the oldest tombstones of Wroclaw Jews.
This cemetery is an extraordinary portrait of the Jewish community of Wroclaw. By following the biographies of people buried there, one can often come across outstanding figures not only from the Jewish world. The Wroclaw community included scientists and rabbis, professors and lecturers of both the University of Wroclaw and the Jewish Theological Seminary; numerous bankers and merchants; important figures from the world of culture and art; political activists and a group of philanthropists, social activists and founders of many important charity institutions. The list of distinguished figures resting in this cemetery proves undeniably how important, highly developed and influential the city of Wroclaw was in nineteenth-century Europe.
Unfortunately, the prosperity did not last long. The end of the cemetery’s activity came with World War II – first, the Wehrmacht established a warehouse in the administration building, and in 1945 the cemetery witnessed the fighting of Festung Breslau and served as a fortress for the Nazis. In the times of the Polish People’s Republic it was attempted to annihilate it, fortunately this plan failed and in 1975 the cemetery was entered into the register of historic monuments in the city. However, the renovation works began in the 1980s and today the cemetery functions as the Museum of Cemetery Art belonging to the Wroclaw City Museum.
However, the necropolis at Ślężna Street was not the only the burial place for Wroclaw Jews. In 1902, a new cemetery was opened at today’s Lotnicza Street. It is a unique place because it inseparably connects two worlds: pre-war Jewish inhabitants of Wroclaw with those who live here after the war. Founded by German Jews, today it is the only active Jewish cemetery in the city.
The Old Jewish Cemetery on Ślężna Street
New Jewish Cemetery on Lotnicza Street
The New Jewish Cemetery began operating at the beginning of the 20th century – the first burials took place in 1902, when the site was in the village of Cosel, which was at that time located outside Wroclaw. Currently, it is one of the largest Jewish necropolises in Poland, entered into the register of monuments. Its planner was Paul Ehrlich. The history of German and Polish Jews, whose life was connected with Wroclaw, is inscribed in its walls. During the times of the Polish People’s Republic, the matzevot were frequently devastated, and most of them were completely ruined at that time.
The New Jewish Cemetery on Lotnicza Street (Marta Maćkowiak)
The victims of both wars are also buried in the cemetery. Both the civilian population and the soldiers who fought for their German homeland during World War I have an honorable resting place. A monument dedicated to the memory of Jewish soldiers, crowned with a magnificent dome, attracts attention. The victims of the Holocaust are also buried in the cemetery – we can find both nameless graves and plaques built into the cemetery wall commemorating the victims of Nazism.
As in the slightly older cemetery on Ślężna Street, here we can also find a wealth of tombstone architecture, both modest and ornate monuments, as well as the graves of many famous Wroclaw Jews. What is unique in Lower Silesia is the only ohel in this region, i.e. an ohel, a brick tomb with a door, which is usually placed above the tombs of tzadikim or distinguished rabbis. The ohel in Wroclaw belongs to a woman – Mina Cira Majzel, the wife of the chief rabbi of Łódź, who is remembered by the community as a god-fearing woman famous for her charity. The great funeral home, falling into ruin, has also been preserved to this day. Among the cemetery infrastructure that did not survive, we should mention the administrative building, where the Nazis organized a warehouse for communal documents. Perhaps owing to this they survived the war and could later be deposited at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
Since 1996, the cemetery has formally belonged to the Jewish Religious Community in Wroclaw and serves not only Wroclaw Jews, but also inhabitants of other towns from Lower Silesia. Many people who played an important role in the life of the city are buried here.
Pre-war grave at the New Jewish Cemetery (Poloniae Amici)