Skarszewy Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
The date of the establishment of the cemetery is unknown. Hanna Domańska in her book “Kamienne drzewo płaczu” (Stone Tree of Tears) writes: “The Jewish communities of the Gdańsk Province, their history and monuments, as well as the creation of the cemetery, date back to the end of the 18th century. According to the cemetery card, the building was established in the mid-19th century.
It is known that in the interwar period, the cemetery was surrounded by a brick wall with an iron, forged gate. There was a funeral house at the entrance.
After the outbreak of World War II, the area of the cemetery and its vicinity became the site of executions carried out by Selbstschutz and the SS against Poles, Jews and Roma. About 250 victims were buried in the mass grave in the cemetery. At the turn of 1944 and 1945, in order to remove any traces of the crime, the Germans ordered the bodies to be dug up and burned.
The cemetery survived the Second World War in relatively good condition and was gradually devastated in the following decades. The fence and the funeral house were destroyed. It was heavily damaged in the 1970s, when most of the tombstones were removed and could have been re-used in stone factories.
In 1962, the mass grave of people shot in 1939 was surrounded by an iron railing and in its central part there was a symbolic tombstone with a cross, with the inscription “Eternal rest”. In 1989, the cemetery was entered into the provincial register of immovable monuments (decision No. 1063 of October 16, 1989).
In 2004, on the initiative of Sławomir Sikora, cleaning works were carried out at the cemetery. The wild vegetation was cut down, the tombstones were cleaned, and a few matzevot were excavated from under the moss and turf. In the following years, other acts of devastation took place at the cemetery.
Currently, there are several dozen tombstones in the cemetery in various conditions. These are mainly concrete tombs and single stelae. The cemetery is located in a forested area. It is unfenced. It would be desirable to clearly mark its borders.
(K. Bielawski, cmentarze-zydowskie.pl)