Ilawa Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Country
Poland
Region
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
District
Iława
Settlement
Iława
Site address
Adjacent to Henryka Sienkiewicza Street, 1. Iława. Cemetery area is a parking lot between to the City Ice Rink (Sienkiewicza street, 1) and the Tourist and Recreation Center (Biskupska, 2).
GPS coordinates
53.596191, 19.552814
Perimeter length
210 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
No fence.
Preservation condition
Demolished and overbuilt Jewish cemetery
General site condition
Jewish cemetery of Iława is situated in the north-western part of the town. The cemetery is demolished and overbuilt with a parking lot next to the City Ice Rink and the Tourist and Recreation Center. No traces of the cemetery preserved, no tombstones.
Number of existing gravestones
Demolished cemetery with no tombstones on it.
Date of oldest tombstone
N/A
Date of newest tombstone
N/A
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
No
Historical overview
The Jewish cemetery in Iława was established probably in the first half of the 19th century, in connection with the royal decree of May 24, 1814, ordering Jewish communities to create their own burial places near the city of residence. The regulation was aimed at, inter alia, limiting the transportation of dead bodies over long distances.
The cemetery was established outside the town, on the west side of Geserich See (Mały Jeziorak Lake), in the bend of Bischofswerderstrasse (today's Biskupska Street), on a plot similar to a triangle, with an area of 0.22 ha.
No further information on the history of the cemetery is available. During the Polish People's Republic, some of the tombstones were made of hardening the shore of Mały Jeziorak Lake from the side of Mickiewicza Street. The devastated cemetery survived until the mid-1970s, when the hill was leveled. In the place of the cemetery, the city authorities arranged a cinder pitch and then a parking lot.
(K. Bielawski, cmentarze-zydowskie.pl)
