Goleniow Jewish Cemetery

During the construction of the park, the Jewish cemetery was not touched (there were plans to designate alleys there), because the Provincial Conservator of Monuments did not allow it. Currently, no one has searched the Jewish cemetery for tombstones hidden in the ground. It is only known that in the 1970s, when the nearby Evangelical cemetery was liquidated, the tombstones or their remains were probably taken from the Jewish cemetery (we do not know exactly in what condition the Germans left the cemetery).

The park underwent another major revitalization in 2019 and a playground for children was built on a part of the former Christian cemetery. The Jewish cemetery was not desecrated in a similar way at this time.
In the middle of the park, there is a boulder with signs in several languages ​​around it. The boulder is located quite far from the Jewish cemetery. It can therefore be said that the plaques somehow commemorate the former inhabitants of Goleniów. Only the board and markings of the cemetery area are missing.
After Kristallnacht, all Jews were imprisoned in the Goleniów prison. In 1940, they were moved to Szczecin, and from there to Bełżec in the Lublin region. None survived the camp and were executed in Bełżec. The names of the inhabitants appear on the list of the murdered.

We do not know when the first Jews settled in Goleniów. They were certainly present here in the 18th century. In 1782, 62 Jews lived in the city, and their number increased to 165 in 1840. The Jews of Goleniów had their own synagogue and cemetery. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, many emigrated abroad. In 1933, the Jewish community in Goleniów numbered only 77 people, and the Nazi repressions caused this number to drop further. Those who stayed in the city until the outbreak of World War II were deported to ghettos in the Lublin region in February 1940. Most of them did not live to see liberation.

The Jewish cemetery in Goleniów was established around 1816. It was located north of the Heroes’ Cemetery, at Stettiner Chaussee (Szczecińska Street), but it was placed at a distance from the road and on a hill. To the north of the cemetery there was an old animal market and a number of farm buildings. We do not know the history of this necropolis before 1945. It probably suffered the same fate as the synagogue in Goleniów, which was destroyed and burned down during Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938). After the war, the Jewish cemetery shared the fate of many German cemeteries – it was razed to the ground. In the area of ​​0.1 ha, no tombstones have survived and today there is no trace of the cemetery except a rectangular square with regularly planted lime trees and spruce trees. The area of ​​the old Goleniów cemetery, together with the adjacent heroes’ cemetery and the nearby Jewish cemetery, were transformed into a park.

On October 6, 1995, a commemorative plaque was placed in the middle of the park. There are five copper tablets around the huge boulder. On each of them there is an inscription in Polish, German, Russian, Czech and Hebrew with the following content: “In memory of all who rested forever in the Goleniów Land” (German: “Zum Gedenken an alle, die in Gollnow und Umgebung ihre letzte Ruhe gefunden haben “). The author of the obelisk design is professor Wilk from Szczecin.
(Source: sztetl.org.pl; encyklopedia.szczecin.pl)