Jewish cemetery (Langfuhr)

Jewish cemetery in Langfuhr (Wrzeszcz)

Fragments of grave tablets

The Jewish cemetery in Langfuhr , a district of Gdansk in the Polish Pomeranian Voivodeship , was laid out in the 18th century. The Jewish Cemetery , on the northern slope of Królewskie Wzgórze ( Königshöhe ) on Romualda Traugutta Street, is now a public park and not a protected cultural monument .

history

In Langfuhr (Polish: Wrzeszcz) the first Jews settled in front of the gates of Gdansk in the 1680s. In 1765 the large Jewish community had 230 members. The cemetery was established in the mid-eighteenth century. Until 1775 the burial fraternity of the parish in Old Scotland provided the necessary services .

A synagogue of its own, later called the Old Synagogue , was built on the market in Langfuhr in 1775 and existed until 1887, when the joint Great Synagogue of all Gdańsk reform communities was opened.

Around 1814 the cemetery was largely destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars ; Langfuhr was incorporated into Danzig. In 1823 it was restored and rebuilt.

Under pressure from the National Socialists ruling the Free City of Danzig , the Jewish Community decided to dissolve it at the end of 1938. The Israelite cemetery in Langfuhr was also sold to finance the emigration of parishioners . The last occupancy took place in January. Since then, and especially after the official closure in 1942, the graves have fallen into desolation. Today only 7 tombstones are preserved on the 0.35 hectare area, the oldest dating from 1823.

For a long time it was suspected that a staircase over the ridge, laid out in the 1970s, was built from Jewish gravestones. It was only in 2014 that it became clear that the so-called Stair of Shame ( schodami hańby ) had been created from Christian tombstones.