Lidzbark Warmiński New Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Country
Poland
Region
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
District
Lidzbark Warmiński
Settlement
Lidzbark Warmiński
Site address
Adjacent to Grunwaldzka Street, 13A/13B. The cemetery is situated on the northern slope of a hill located on the extension of Grunwaldzka Street. A forest path leading to the top of the hill and the former cemetery starts behind the building on Grunwaldzka Street no. 13A/13B.
GPS coordinates
54.118400, 20.578193
Perimeter length
130 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
No fence.
Preservation condition
Demolished Jewish cemetery that has not been built over
General site condition
Demolished and unfenced cemetery located in the old forest. Area is partly densely overgrown and covered with old leaves. Territory is clean and rather rarely visited. No traces of the former cemetery are preserved, no tombstones.
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
Other
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
No
Historical overview
The (new) Jewish cemetery in Lidzbark Warmiński was established in the first half of the 19th century. The first Jews moved to the town in 1472. Before the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish population numbered approximately 1,934. No fragments of tombstones have survived in the cemetery. The area of the cemetery is about 0.10 ha.
(Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage; fodz.pl/?d=10&id=434&l=pl)
The new necropolis was most likely opened in the mid-nineteenth century, about 1.2 km south of the city center, on the road leading to the Góry Strzeleckie (Schiess Berge) - then Gebirgestraße (today's Grunwaldzka Street), on the northern slope of one of the hills, on which later a water tower was built. Within the cemetery, established on an elongated square plan, there was a mortuary (beit-tahara) erected in 1912, as well as a shed with a hearse (1885) kept in it, which was looked after by the Chevra Kadisha funeral society. The cemetery was fenced with a wall.
Today, no traces of the tombstones have survived. The location of the necropolises is indicated by the relics of the old forest stand.
During Kristallnacht, many Jewish homes and shops in the city were attacked. It is possible that the cemeteries belonging to the commune were also profaned. The new cemetery began to function around the mid-nineteenth century. It was founded on the slope of a hill covered with pine trees at the then Gebirgestraße (now Grunwaldzka Street) and surrounded by a wall with an iron, locked gate. There was a funeral home and a shed with a hearse nearby. Currently, no traces of tombstones have survived in both cemeteries.
(“Żydowskie domy modlitwy oraz cmentarze na Warmii i Mazurach – stan obecny” book by Seweryn Szczepański, 2017; doi.org/10.26774/rzz.165)
