The Warsaw Jewish Cemetery is one of the largest

Jewish cemeteries A Jewish cemetery ( ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' (house of sepulcher ...

in Europe and in the world. Located on Warsaw's Okopowa Street and abutting the

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

Powązki Cemetery Powązki Cemetery (; ), also known as Stare Powązki (), is a historic necropolis located in Wola district, in the western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city and one of the oldest, having been established in 179 ...

, the Jewish necropolis was established in 1806 and occupies 33

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s (83 acres) of land. The cemetery contains over 250,000 marked graves, as well as mass graves of victims of the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

. Although the cemetery was closed down during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, after the war it was reopened and a small portion of it remains active, serving Warsaw's existing Jewish population. As the necropolis was established to replace many smaller cemeteries closer to the city centre, it was designed to serve all Jewish communities of Warsaw, regardless of their affiliation. Hence, it is subdivided into several districts dubbed quarters (''kwatery''), historically reserved for various groups. Among them are three

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

(for men, women and one for holy scriptures),

Reform Judaism Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish religious movements, Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its Jewish ethics, ethical aspects to its ceremo ...

, children, military and

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...

victims. The cemetery, which has become a dense forest in the post-war period, is filled with monuments dedicated to notable personas such as politicians, spiritual leaders, inventors, economists and others. Many of the markers are simple, others are elaborately carved and richly decorated. Large mausoleums appear in styles ranging from

Egyptian revival Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's French campaign in Egypt and Syria, invasion of ...

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

History

In 1806 Warsaw's Jewish Commune petitioned the government to establish a new cemetery for Jewish inhabitants of Warsaw. The Bródno Jewish Cemetery, in existence since 1769, was nearly at capacity and the

chevra kadisha The term ''chevra kadisha'' () gained its modern sense of "burial society" in the nineteenth century. It is an organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of deceased Jews are prepared for burial according to Jewish tra ...

sought a new burial ground.Gold, Rabbi Yoel. "Chesed Shel Emes". '' Ami Living'', January 25, 2017, p. 16. The lot chosen was located right outside of the city limits in the borough of

Wola Wola () is a district in western Warsaw, Poland. An industrial area with traditions reaching back to the early 19th century, it underwent a transformation into a major financial district, featuring various landmarks and some of the tallest offi ...

, next to a new Catholic

established in 1790. The petition was accepted and in the following year the cemetery was established. The earliest

headstone A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The u ...

was dated December 6, 1806 and belonged to certain Nachum son of Nachum of

Siemiatycze Siemiatycze ( ''Siamiatyčy'') is a town in eastern Poland, with 14,391 inhabitants (2019). It is the capital of Siemiatycze County in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. History The history of Siemiatycze dates back to the mid-16th century, when the vil ...

, but it did not survive to our times. The first woman interred there was certain Elka Junghoff, daughter of Jehuda Leib Mulrat of

Kalisz Kalisz () is a city in central Poland, and the second-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, with 97,905 residents (December 2021). It is the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of Gr ...

. Her tombstone is dated November 26, 1804, but the date is most likely wrong. Hence the oldest surviving headstone belongs to Sara, daughter of Eliezer (died September 8, 1807). Unlike other cemeteries in Europe, all the graves in the Okopowa Street cemetery have their backs to the cemetery gate. The tradition of placing graves facing the cemetery gate stems from the belief that at the future

resurrection of the dead General resurrection or universal resurrection is the belief in a resurrection of the dead, or resurrection from the dead ( Koine: , ''anastasis onnekron''; literally: "standing up again of the dead") by which most or all people who have died ...

, the dead will rise up and be able to leave the cemetery without having to turn around. However, in 1819, when one community member was accidentally buried with his head, rather than his feet, facing the cemetery gate, Rabbi

Szlomo Zalman Lipszyc Szlomo Zalman Lipszyc (1765 Poznań – 1839 Warsaw), also known as Salomon Zalman Pozner as well as the Chemdas Shlomo from the title of the works he authored, was a prominent Orthodox rabbi, and first Chief Rabbi of Warsaw. He studied Torah i ...

, the first Chief Rabbi of Warsaw, ruled that all future burials should be done the same way, to avoid causing embarrassment to the first one buried in this manner. During the first decades of its existence the new Okopowa Street cemetery was used mostly by the higher strata of Jewish society, with poorer Jews interred in the Bródno Jewish Cemetery in the easternmost borough of

Bródno Bródno is a neighborhood in the Warsaw borough of Targówek, located on the eastern side of the Vistula river. It is inhabited by approximately 100,000 people. Among the most notable landmarks are Bródno Park and the Bródno cemetery, the la ...

, on the right bank of the

Vistula The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

. Despite that the cemetery quickly became overcrowded and already in 1824 it had to be expanded. Around that time the

Tsarist Tsarist autocracy (), also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire. In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority and ...

authorities took over the administration of the cemetery from the chevra kadisha and by 1850 established a separate funeral administration. The first on-site

funeral home A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary is a business that provides burial, entombment and cremation services for the dead and their families. These services may include a prepared visitation and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for t ...

was established in 1828, but already in 1831 it was destroyed by

Russian Army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

in the course of the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

. A new building was erected the following year and further expanded in 1854. In the meantime the necropolis was extended twice: in 1840 and 1848. Around that time it became the main Jewish cemetery of Warsaw, for rich and poor alike. Historically the cemetery was separated from the city centre and the quarter inhabited by Jews by a deep ditch, the so-called

Lubomirski Ramparts Lubomirski Ramparts () was a 12 kilometre-long earthwork surrounding the city of Warsaw in late 18th and 19th century. A line of earthworks with a dry moat separated the city of Warsaw from the countryside. Erected by Stanisław Lubomirski, the ...

, created in 1777 to stop the spread of plague and as a tax measure. It was not until 1873 that both Jewish and Catholic communities were allowed to build a bridge across the ditch to facilitate access to both cemeteries. In 1860 and 1863 the cemetery was extended again and in 1869 reached its present form. However, it began to overcrowd and in 1885 all burials financed by the Jewish community (i.e. of the poor) were directed to the Bródno Jewish Cemetery. In 1877 several notable Jewish families of Warsaw financed a new late Neo-Classical building by Adolf Schimmelpfennig housing a

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

and two burial houses (one for men and one for women). The second floor was reserved for the rabbi's flat. 251012 Detail of tombstones at Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw - 49

251012 Detail of tombstones at Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw - 49

As the cemetery was used by all groups of Warsaw's Jewry, conflicts arose over control of the cemetery and various burial-related issues. In 1913 it was agreed to split it onto four parts: one for

Jews, one for

Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

Jews, one for children, and one for military and state burials. After World War I the cemetery again became overcrowded. Subsequently, a mound or earthwork terrace was erected over the quarter previously reserved for children to allow for more burials. Between 1918 and 1936 fourteen such mounds were created. In the 1930s the entire cemetery was surrounded with a high wall, and in 1939 construction started on a Mausoleum of Jews Fighting for Polish Independence. Works were stopped by the outbreak of World War II and the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

. During World War II the cemetery was partly demolished. German forces used it for

mass execution Mass killing is a concept which has been proposed by genocide scholars who wish to define incidents of non-combat killing which are perpetrated by a government or a state. A mass killing is commonly defined as the killing of group members witho ...

s and the burial of victims of

, the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

of 1944, and other mass murders. Those burials included both Jews and non-Jews. Following the Ghetto Uprising, on May 15, 1943 the Germans detonated all buildings in the area of the cemetery, including the synagogue and burial houses. Only a small well survives to this day. Further damage was done to the cemetery during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, when the front line passed directly through the cemetery. After the war the cemetery was reopened. The Communist authorities of Poland planned a road directly through the middle of the cemetery. The plans were never carried out because of efforts of an American diplomat Alfred Brainard who responded to a call for help from Jewish organizations In the 1990s the neglected cemetery started to be renovated for the first time since the 1930s, mostly by the re-created Warsaw Jewish Commune and the Nissenbaum Family Foundation, as well as the City of Warsaw municipal government. The cemetery is still open, with 20 to 30 new burials every year.

Notable interments

* Solomon Anski, writer (Solomon Zangwill Rappaport), author of "''The Dybbuk''" *

Szymon Askenazy Szymon Askenazy (December 24, 1865, Zawichost – June 22, 1935, Warsaw) was a Polish Jews, Jewish-Polish historian, educator, statesman and diplomat, founder of the Askenazy school. He was the first Polish representative at the League of Natio ...

, archaeologist * Meir Balaban *

Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (20 November 1816 – 10 August 1893), also known as Reb Hirsch Leib Berlin, and commonly known by the acronym Netziv, was a Russian Orthodox rabbi, rosh yeshiva ( dean) of the Volozhin Yeshiva and author of several work ...

, Rosh yeshiva of the Volozhin Yeshiva and author of several major Jewish works * Mathias Bersohn, philanthropist * Adam Czerniakow (1880–1942), head of the Judenrat in the Warsaw Ghetto *

Szymon Datner Szymon Datner (2 February 1902 – 8 December 1989) was a Polish historian, Holocaust survivor and underground operative from Białystok, who was born in Kraków and died in Warsaw. He is best known for his studies of the Nazi war crimes and eve ...

, historian * Jacob Dinezon (1852–1919), writer *

Marek Edelman Marek Edelman (; 1919/1922 – October 2, 2009) was a Polish Jewish political and social activist and cardiologist. Edelman was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Long before his death, he was the last one to stay in the ...

Maksymilian Fajans Maksymilian Fajans (May 5, 1825 in Sieradz – July 28, 1890 in Warsaw) was a Polish people, Polish artist, lithographer and photographer. Fajans won several prizes at the International Photographic Exhibition organized in 1865 in Berlin and, ...

, artist, lithographer and photographer * Maurycy Fajans, founder of the first steamboat line on the Vistula * Alexander Flamberg, chess master *

Edward Flatau Edward Flatau (27 December 1868 – 7 June 1932) was a Polish neurologist and psychiatrist. He was a co-founder of the modern Polish neurology, an authority on the physiology and pathology of meningitis, co-founder of medical journals ''Neurolo ...

, neurologist *

Uri Nissan Gnessin Uri Nissan Gnessin (1879–1913) was a Russian-Jewish writer and a pioneer in modern Hebrew literature. Early life He was born in Starodub, and grew up in the small town of Pochep, Orel province. His father was a rabbi and the head of a yeshiva ...

, writer *

Samuel Goldflam Samuel Wulfowicz Goldflam (15 February 1852 – 26 August 1932) was a Polish-Jewish Isaac Lewin & Nathan Michael Gelber, ''A History of Polish Jewry during the revival of Poland'', Shengold Publishers (1990), p. 86 neurologist best known for his ...

, neurologist *

Ester Rachel Kamińska Ester Rachel Kamińska (; Ester-Rokhl Halpern Porozow, Porozów, 10 March 1870 – Warsaw, 25 December 1925) was a Polish actress of Jewish descent, known as the mother of Yiddish theatre. She won fame as the star of a series of Yiddish theater c ...

(1870–1925), the "mother of Yiddish Theater", mother of

Ida Kamińska Ida Kamińska (September 18, 1899 – May 21, 1980) was a Polish actress and director. Known mainly for her work in the theatre, she was the daughter of Avrom Yitshok Kaminski (Abraham Isaac Kaminski) and Ester Rachel Kamińska ( Halpern), kn ...

* Michał Klepfisz *

Janusz Korczak Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit (22 July 1878 or 1879 – 7 August 1942), was a Polish Jewish pediatrician, educator, children's author and pedagogue known as ''Pan Doktor'' ("Mr. Doctor") or ''Stary Doktor'' ("Old Doctor"). He ...

, famous author and physician *

Izaak Kramsztyk Izaak Kramsztyk (1814–1889) was a Reform Judaism, Reform Jewish rabbi, preacher, lawyer and writer. He is credited as the first rabbinic teacher of Talmud in Polish language, Polish. He started a dynasty of Warsaw's benefactors, scientists and w ...

, rabbi and lawyer *

Aleksander Lesser Aleksander Lesser (13 May 1814 – 13 March 1884) was a Polish painter, illustrator, sketch artist, art critic, and amateur researcher of antiquities. Lesser was Jewish, and became one of the first artists to depict scenes from modern Jewish his ...

, painter and art critic *

, first Chief Rabbi of Warsaw *

Dow Ber Meisels Dow (Dov, Dob) Ber (Beer, Berisz, Berush) Meisels (1798 – 17 March 1870) was a Chief Rabbi of Kraków (Cracow) from 1832 and later, Chief Rabbi of Warsaw (from 1856). He was active in the Polish nationalist movement, and was a politician in the ...

, rabbi of Kraków and Warsaw * Eliyahu Shlomo HaLevi of Lida, Hasidic rabbi *

Samuel Orgelbrand Samuel Orgelbrand (1810 – 16 November 1868) was a Polish-Jewish printer (publisher), printer, bookseller, and publisher. He is best known as the initiator, organizer, and publisher of the ''Encyklopedia Powszechna'' (Universal Encyclopedia), or ...

, publisher of the Universal Encyclopaedia * Isaac Loeb Peretz (1852–1915) one of the most important Yiddish language writers of the 19th-20th centuries *

Samuel Abraham Poznański Samuel Abraham Poznański or Shemuel Avraham Poznanski ( , Lubraniec, 3 September 1864–1921) was a Polish-Jewish scholar, known for his studies of Karaism and the Hebrew calendar. Arabist, Hebrew bibliographer, and authority on modern Karaism; r ...

Józef Różański Józef Różański (; born Josef Goldberg; 13 July 1907 – 21 August 1981) was an officer in the Soviet NKVD and later, a Colonel in the Polish Ministry of Public Security (UB), the communist secret police. Born into a Polish-Jewish family in War ...

, communist activist * Józef Sandel, art historian and critic *

Hayyim Selig Slonimski Ḥayyim Selig ben Ya'akov Slonimski (; March 31, 1810 – May 15, 1904), also known by Hebrew abbreviations, his acronym ḤaZaS (), was a Hebrew publisher, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, science writer, and rabbi. He was among the first t ...

, Hebrew publisher, astronomer, inventor and science author *

Chaim Soloveitchik Chaim (Halevi) Soloveitchik (Yiddish: חיים סאָלאָווייטשיק, ), also known as Chaim Brisker (1853 – 30 July 1918), was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the Brisker method of Talmudic study within Judaism ...

, founder of the Brisk rabbinic dynasty & the "brisker method" of Talmudic study *

Julian Stryjkowski Julian Stryjkowski (born Pesach Stark; April 27, 1905 – August 8, 1996) was a Polish journalist and writer, known for his social prose and radical leftist leanings. He was considered one of the best Polish-Jewish writers of the People's Republi ...

, (born Pesach Stark) 1905–1996, writer, author of "Austeria" "Voices in Darkness" * Hipolit Wawelberg, founder of Warsaw Technical College, *

Szymon Winawer Szymon Abramowicz Winawer (March 6, 1838 – November 29, 1919) was a Polish chess player who won the German Chess Championship in 1883. Tournament and match results At the Paris 1867 tournament held at the Café de la Régence, his first inte ...

, chess player *

Lucjan Wolanowski Lucjan Wilhelm Wolanowski (Lucjan Kon; February 26, 1920 – February 20, 2006), pseudonyms: ''Wilk''; ''Waldemar Mruczkowski''; ''W. Lucjański''; (L.W.); lu; Lu; (lw); WOL., was a Polish journalist, writer and traveller. Early life, educati ...

Ludwik Zamenhof L. L. Zamenhof (15 December 185914 April 1917) was the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language. Zamenhof published Esperanto in 1887, although his initial ideas date back as far as 1873. He grew ...

, doctor and inventor of

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

References

External links

Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery
at Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Virtual Shtetl
Website of an ongoing project of writing down all the names from the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery
* "Gesia" Jewish Cemetery Foundation - https://web.archive.org/web/20180131184103/http://www.jewishcem.waw.pl/english/start.htm * http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/aa100499.htm {{Authority control Cemeteries in Warsaw Jewish cemeteries in Poland Wola 1806 establishments in Poland Art Nouveau cemeteries Art Nouveau architecture in Poland Holocaust locations in Poland Orthodox Judaism in Poland Reform Judaism in Poland Cemeteries established in the 1800s

History

Notable interments

See also

References

External links