Biskupiec Reszelski Jewish Cemetery

In the area of about 0.13 ha, there are only traces of tombstones in the form of guards sunk in the ground, but there are no complete matzevot. Little is known about the beginning of the cemetery in Biskupiec, nor about the earliest Jewish settlement in the town.
According to the preserved statistics, the local Jewish community was quite numerous in the 19th century. We know from the earliest data that in 1835 it numbered 84 people, in 1843 – 57, and in 1871 it reached the largest number – 134, which constituted 3.53% of the population.
It is possible that already in the 1830s there was a synagogue here. In 1936 it was devastated by the local Nazis, and the cemetery was also destroyed. According to the accounts of the inhabitants of that time, quoted by Aloys Sommerfeld, during the “Kristallnacht”, apart from breaking the matzevot, young people from Hitlerjugend also blew up part of the stone fence.
After the war, the abandoned cemetery was overgrown with vegetation and further deteriorated. According to the description of the state from 1960 and 1987, there were no more tombstones at the cemetery, the only traces were the fringes of the graves, which
it was supposed to be damaged by robbery trenches.
(“Żydowskie domy modlitwy oraz cmentarze na Warmii i Mazurach – stan obecny” book by Seweryn Szczepański, 2017; doi.org/10.26774/rzz.165)

The Jewish cemetery in Biskupiec was established probably in the first half of the 19th century, on a rectangular plot adjacent to the south of the road to Reszel via Bredynki, approx. 0.6 km from the city center. Over time, the cemetery was surrounded by a brick fence. In later years, a railway line was marked out near the necropolis. The facility was demolished and desecrated in November 1938. During this period, members of Hitlerjugend also blew up part of the cemetery wall.
In 1960, there were no more traces of the tombstones on the ground, but the grass-covered trenches left by the activity of cemetery hyenas were visible. According to one of the reports, it was done due to the occupation of the cemetery area and its development for the needs of the railway.
Today, there are no traces of tombstones and the cemetery wall, only relics of trees (oaks and pine) have survived.
In autumn 2011, at the initiative of the city authorities, the necropolis was cleaned up.
(sztetl.org.pl)