Szczytno Jewish Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery at Łomżyńska Street is today one of the best preserved remains of Jewish culture in the area of ​​the former Prussian lands. It is surrounded by an iron fence and is surrounded by old trees. There is also a large number of graves – 202 in total, together with 68 complete matzevot and 35 partially saved. The oldest surviving burials are evidenced by the tombs of Eske Itzig (1782–1827) and Israel Aronson (1779–1833), the youngest, Moses Finkenstein, dates from 1932. The cemetery was divided into two sections - northern and southern, originally separated by an avenue. Most of the preserved tombstones are bilingual, and the dates of birth and death are given according to the Gregorian and Hebrew calendar. Matzevot from Szczytno also have extensive symbolism, some of them are characterized by unusual forms, such as a neo-Gothic "turret", a round column, or more commonly found in the form of an open book, a tree trunk with branches cut off (here analogies from Evangelical cemeteries). The material from which the tombstones were made was mainly sandstone, granite, marble and terrazzo. The first devastation of the cemetery was carried out during the "Kristallnacht", also in the post-war years there were cases of removal of tombstones. The cemetery was not subject to conservation protection - part of the area (from the street side) was occupied by a coal storage, which led to its further devastation and plunder. In 1985 and 1987, among others, proceedings related to the theft of marble tombstones were pending before the local court. Only in 1988 it was entered in the register of monuments (no. A-3923/0). Currently, it is under the care of the Szczytno City Commune, is kept in order and under constant surveillance, especially after anti-Jewish slogans appeared on some of the tombstones in the 1990s. (“Żydowskie domy modlitwy oraz cmentarze na Warmii i Mazurach – stan obecny” book by Seweryn Szczepański, 2017; doi.org/10.26774/rzz.165)