Koszalin New Jewish Cemetery

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Jews of Koszalin established a new cemetery, located at today’s Racławicka Street. Both necropolises were destroyed by the Nazis in 1938. Father Henryk Romanik in his book entitled “O Żydach w Koszalinie” (“About the Jews in Koszalin”) writes about these events: “The Germans overturned the tombstones, some threw them into the river, and the funeral home near the new cemetery was burned and demolished. Only the apartment of the Christian cemetery guardian survived. Since then, burials were forbidden. Funerals of the local Jews took place in Słupsk. “The description of the necropolis prepared in May 1947 by engineer Gildemman from the Central Jewish Historical Commission shows that there were tombstones in the new cemetery after the war. In his memo, Gildemman wrote: “The Jewish cemetery in Koszalin is located in the city centre, it was probably once fenced with a fence (…..). In the western part of the cemetery there was a tahare shtibl, now completely ruined. All monuments were overturned, some of these monuments were probably taken away, because only the pedestals were left. The oldest monuments come from 1900, they are made of polished granite with inscriptions in Jewish and German. According to the testimonies of the Germans met there, apart from this cemetery, there was an old cemetery, which was completely destroyed and no trace of after him he did not stay “. The buildings of the Teachers’ College, now the Koszalin University of Technology, were later erected on the grounds of the new cemetery.

Thanks to the initiative of the research workers of the Koszalin University of Technology and with the support of Fr. Henryk Romanik and Zdzisław Pacholski, on May 24, 2006, a monument was unveiled at the site of the new Jewish cemetery at Racławicka Street. On a matzevah-styled plate with a relief of a broken tree – a symbol of interrupted life common in Jewish sepulchral art – there is an inscription in Polish and Hebrew: “In memory of Koszalin Jews buried in the new cemetery (1900-1938). May their souls be tied in a knot of the living”.
(K. Bielawski; cmentarze-zydowskie.pl)

The new cemetery functioned from 1901. It was located a few hundred meters from the old cemetery on the bank of the Dzierżęcinka River (around today’s Orla and Rzeczna Streets), at Am Schwarzen Berg (now Racławicka Street, the area of ​​the Koszalin University of Technology). Although at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries there was a significant decrease in the number of Jews in Koszalin, and after a few years the community numbered only 225 people, Jews constituted slightly more than 1% of all inhabitants of the city, of whom there were approximately 20,000 at that time, the old the cemetery turned out to be too small to accommodate further burials. The new cemetery occupied an area of ​​about 0.4 ha. There was also a funeral home. Until it was closed, over a hundred people of the Jewish faith were buried there. During Kristallnacht it was devastated and the funeral home was burnt down. Further burials were forbidden. From that time on, a few Jews from Koszalin had to bury their dead in Słupsk. After World War II, by the decision of the authorities, the cemetery was liquidated and the area was designated for development. Currently, the area of ​​the former necropolis belongs to the Koszalin University of Technology. The existence of the cemetery is commemorated by a stone with a commemorative plaque, funded thanks to the initiative of university researchers. It was unveiled on May 24, 2006.
(West Pomeranian Encyclopedia; http://encyklopedia.szczecin.pl/)