Vasarosnameny Jewish Cemetery 1

Cemetery Information

Country
Hungary
Region
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg
District
Vásárosnaményi
Settlement
Vásárosnamény
Site address
On the road leaving Vásárosnamény towards Ilk, on the right hand side. It is about 175m west of Szölöskert Street.
GPS coordinates
48.12672, 22.29931
Perimeter length
150 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
There is a brick and wooden wall, around 2m high.
Preservation condition
Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The site is in a really good condition. The grass is mown.
Number of existing gravestones
111 gravestones: 102 standing & 9 broken or pedestal bases.
Date of oldest tombstone
1856
Date of newest tombstone
1948
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Property of local community
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

There were three Jewish cemeteries in the modern territory of Vásárosnamény. This cemetery was established as early as 1856, since the oldest tombstone found in the cemetery dates to that year. The cemetery remained in operation until at least 1948 – the year in which the latest tombstone was erected. The cemetery has been fenced.

In 1840, 25 Jews lived in Vásárosnamény. The Jewish population later significantly increased to 239 in 1880, 460 in 1910, and 764 in 1930. The Jewish population peaked in 1941 when Jews accounted for 896 people of the village’s total population (3,755). Jews living in the surrounding villages were a part of the Vásárosnamény Jews community. The community was headed in 1905 by Rabbi Elias Kohn, who was born in Vásárosnamény in 1875. Before he was chosen as Rabbi of the community, he was the Assistant Rabbi in Beregszász, where he probably completed his rabbinical studies. He managed to keep the Orthodox community together, even during the Holocaust. He and his wife Chaja (bat Tova), who was born in Szilágydomoszló in 1883, had 15 children. On Passover in 1944, the Hungarian authorities gathered the Jews in the synagogue and deported them by cart to the Beregszász brick factory in Auschwitz. Rabbi Kohn and his wife were both murdered in Auschwitz.