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Lodz New Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Lodzkie Voivodeship
District
Łódź
Settlement
Łódź
Site address
40 Bracka Street. The entrance is from Zmienna Street.
GPS coordinates
51.7966728, 19.4819784
Perimeter length
2.500 meters
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
There is a brick wall about 2m high.
Preservation condition
Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The cemetery is open, well-kept and fenced. In the cemetery there is a funeral home at the gate at Zmienna Street. There are about 160,000 tombstones preserved in good condition in the cemetery. Part of the cemetery with the so-called ghetto field is very overgrown and difficult to access. There is a mass grave of the people who died in the Lódz ghetto.
Number of existing gravestones
about 160,000
Date of oldest tombstone
1893
Date of newest tombstone
N/A
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Other
Preserved construction on site
There is a Beit-tahara is located next to the gate at Zmienna Street.
Drone surveys
No

Historical overview

The cemetery is located in the north-eastern part of the city, between Bracka, Zmienna, Inflancka, Kaufmana, and Zagajnikowa Streets. The cemetery was officially established in 1892 on a plot of land purchased by Izrael Poznański, but the first burials only took place in 1891. At the beginning of 1893, work on building the cemetery grounds began. In April 1898, a funeral house was opened. The area of the cemetery was gradually expanded. During World War I, the cemetery was partially damaged by locals and Russian soldiers. In 1940, the Germans established the Łódź Ghetto, part of which covered the cemetery. Until January 1945, about 45,000 Jews who died and were killed in the ghetto were buried in the cemetery. The partial devastation of the cemetery began around this time.

After the war, the Jewish Religious Congregation in Łódź continued to use the cemetery. In the 1950’s, the city authorities used the western part of the cemetery to extend Zagnikowa Street. The cemetery covers an area of 42 hectares (shaped like an irregular polygon), and it is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe. It is divided by an internal wall in the eastern part with the main gateway and buildings, and the western part with burial plots. It is the burial place of many important people, including industrialist Izrael Poznański and Rabbi Eljasz Chaim Majzel. It is one of about 20 active Jewish cemeteries in Poland. The owner of the cemetery is the Jewish Community in Łódź. The building is listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments of the Łódź Province. Under the regulation of the President of Poland dated February 16, 2015, it was recognized as a Historical Monument.

Jewish settlement in Łódź began to develop at the end of the 18th century. Izrael Poznański was one of the leading entrepreneurs in Łódź. In 1921, 156,155 Jews lived in the city (34.6% of the total population), most of whom were murdered between 1942-1944 by the Germans the Kulmhof and Auschwitz Birkenau camps. There is still currently a Jewish community in Łódź.

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