Karlino Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
West Pomeranian Voivodeship
District
Białogard
Settlement
Karlino
Site address
On the escarpment at the junction of Parkowa and Spacerowa streets, opposite the school complex at 1, Parkowa Street. The best access is from Parkowa Street.
GPS coordinates
54.0365793, 15.8736455
Perimeter length
169 meters
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
No fenced.
Preservation condition
Demolished and overbuilt Jewish cemetery
General site condition
Currently a city park and recreational area. The cemetery is not marked in any form. There is a large obelisk "for those who gave their lives for their homeland".
Number of existing gravestones
No tombstones preserved.
Date of oldest tombstone
N/A
Date of newest tombstone
N/A
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

Until 1814, the Jews who died in Karlino were buried in the cemetery in Świdwin (Schivelbein). However, on May 26 of the same year, a royal decree was issued, which prohibited the transport of deceased Jews to another city. This prompted the Carlsbad commune to purchase land for its own cemetery, which was established on Karlstraße (today Parkowa Street), running towards the former Mountain of Charles (Karlsberg). Initially, the cemetery area was surrounded by a wooden fence made of alder poles and spruce wood slats. In 1939, the area of ​​the cemetery was still surrounded by a high wall, and the entrance was blocked by a wooden (formerly iron) gate. At the beginning of the war, the farmers living in Karlino were ordered to take the tombstones from the cemetery and use them to pave the Schwemminer Weg road. Some of them refused to do so. In 1945, the wall still existed and the cemetery area was completely covered with vegetation. In the 1970s, however, the wall was pulled down by locals and the cemetery area was levelled. In 1996, a monument commemorating the liberation of the Fatherland from the hands of the occupiers and those who died on behalf of the Fatherland was erected on the site of the former Jewish cemetery. Two years later, this area was incorporated into the city park located nearby, in the middle of which there is the above-mentioned monument. No material trace of the former Jewish cemetery has survived, and due to the type and style of its establishment, the building cannot be considered a historic building [as of May 23, 2008].
(sztetl.org.pl)

The Jewish community of Karlino was small. In 1782, there were 33 Jews in Karlino, and in 1794, out of 909 inhabitants, only 10 were of Jewish origin. In the year when the edict of emancipation of Frederick William III was announced (1812), there were only 21 Jews among the 1,000 inhabitants of the city. They established their own cemetery, and they were obliged to do so by a royal edict prohibiting the transport of the dead to other cities. The purchased land on the north-western outskirts of the city was surrounded by a wooden fence, which was later replaced by a stone wall with an iron gate. It was possible because the number of Jews in Karlino in the first half of the 19th century grew steadily – from 55 in 1816 to 131 in 1852 and 148 in 1861, constituting practically the same 5% of the city’s population. At that time, the Karlino community not only had its own necropolis, but also a synagogue and a ritual bath (mikvah). However, already in the 1870s, the Jewish population began to decline, while in 1871 it was 138 people, in 1895 it was only 57, and ten years later the community decreased to 38 people. The community also included Jews living in the neighboring villages of Dębica and Rzeszników. The entire community made up just over 1% of Karlino’s population, which at that time had 3,000 inhabitants. In the post-war years, the community decreased even more and had only 20 members. The cemetery survived Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938) when the Karlino synagogue burned down, but during World War II the tombstones looted from the cemetery were used to pave the road. However, the cemetery was only liquidated in the seventies, when the wall was pulled down and the area leveled. In 1996, a monument commemorating those killed in the fights of the World War was erected in the necropolis, and in 1998 this area was incorporated into the city park. Currently, there is no trace of the Jewish cemetery.
(West Pomeranian Encyclopedia; http://encyklopedia.szczecin.pl/)

Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery
Karlino Jewish Cemetery