Stargard Jewish Cemetery

According to A. Kowalczyk (“Stargardzkie necropolises” [in:] “Stargardzkie Zapiski Regionalne”, Jurkiewicz JL (ed.), Stargard 2000), the cemetery in Stargard was established in the second half of the 18th century and had an area of approximately. 0.5 ha (dimensions: 100 x 50 m). There was a chapel next to the cemetery. The cemetery was destroyed during Kristallnacht in 1938, as was the synagogue (next to the granary).

The Jewish cemetery in Stargard was one of the oldest in Pomerania. It was founded when the commune, one of the largest in Pomerania, was established, at the end of the 17th century. It was located on the Kalkenberg Hill (Gallows Hill) north of the city walls. When the city grew, the Jewish cemetery was located at the intersection of Bergstrasse (now Wojska Polskiego Street) and Kalkenbergerstrasse (now Andrzeja Struga Street). It occupied an area of ​​about 0.3 ha. After two centuries of operation, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, around 230 tombstones were under the constant care of the cemetery. At that time, it was necessary to level the area of ​​the necropolis, where the last burials took place at the end of the 17th century, and which began to collapse. In 1901, the kehilla made efforts to obtain permission to bury the dead in this area, as there was no place for further burials in the area of ​​the cemetery. This is not surprising, as at the beginning of the 20th century, over 600 people of Jewish origin lived in Stargard. It is known that the cemetery was used for the next 40 years, so either the community obtained permission to place graves in layers, which is a last resort solution in Jewish cemeteries, or it bought a part of the park adjacent to the cemetery and thus managed to enlarge the area of ​​the necropolis. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new pre-funeral home was built to replace the previous, already heavily damaged one. In 1938, during Kristallnacht, the cemetery was completely destroyed. In the area of ​​the cemetery, today included in the Bolesław Chrobry Park, no tombstones have survived, nor is there any trace of the funeral home and the cemetery fence.
(West Pomeranian Encyclopedia; http://encyklopedia.szczecin.pl)