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Orneta Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
District
Lidzbark Warmińsk
Settlement
Orneta
Site address
Cemetery doesn’t have an address. Cemetery is located between the new municipal cemetery at Warmińska 60 Street and Piaskowa Street (properties grouped under the numbers from 22 to 28). Cadastral parcel no. 280905_4.0005.12
GPS coordinates
54.117839, 20.115468
Perimeter length
168 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
No fenced.
Preservation condition
Unfenced Jewish cemetery
General site condition
Destroyed jewish cemetery is situated in an old-growth oak forest on the north-western outskirts of the town. The trees in the cemetery area are well cared for and have trimmed branches. The area is littered and used as a campfire place. The cemetery has preserved in a bad condition: only remains of the single gravestone and concrete foundation of the former cemetery wall has preserved.
Number of existing gravestones
One base of the matzevot was found.
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
Not known. Fragments of a pavement (or foundations of some small building?) made of flat ceramic bricks were found in the cemetery area.
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

The Jewish cemetery in Orneta at the former Krickhausener Strasse was established in 1806. It was established outside the city on a rectangular plan. It was devastated by the Germans during World War II. After the war, part of the cemetery was used as pasture. Only a few tombstones’ bases (as of 2009) have been preserved on the area of 0.2 ha. Cows are grazed in the cemetery.
(sztetl.org.pl)

The cemetery is entered into the Voivodeship Register of Monuments.
(cmentarzezydowskie.org)

According to the International Jewish Cemetery Project (iajgscemetery.org) Witold Knercer from Olsztyn surveyed the cemetery in 1992. Here is fragment of his description:
“Access off a public road is open to all with a broken masonry wall. 20-100 gravestones are not in original locations. The municipality owns a site used for agriculture. Properties adjacent are agricultural and residential. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II. It was liquidated and used for animal grazing and partly as a barren land.”
(Wiktor Knercer, Olsztyn, ul. Barcza 33/16, visited the site June 1992 and completed survey Sept. 1992).

Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
Orneta Jewish Cemetery
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