Węgorzyno Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
The Jewish cemetery in Węgorzyno was probably established in 1820 or 1836 in the northern part of the city at Unrausstraße (today, 7, Zielona Street).
Before and after the outbreak of World War II, the area of the cemetery was about 0.06 ha and there were some 100 graves there. Over time, the cemetery fell victim to vandalism and became overgrown with vegetation. In 1978, there was no fence around it, and all the trees, except for one oak, had been cut down. In the bushes one could still find the remains of ancient tombs with inscriptions in Hebrew, dated 1836-1856. The matzevot were made from marble, granite, some of them still in their original places. In 1998, the area of the cemetery was divided into two parts. On one of them, situated more to the east and overgrown with weeds, a large oak still grew. However, there were no traces of the tombstones. In the other part, there was an apartment block built in 1995 with a yard where the waste was stored. Currently, the area may be smaller than in 1939. About 80-100 people may have been buried at the cemetery in Węgorzyno, and the last burial took place in 1940.
(sztetl.org.pl)
The Jewish cemetery in Węgorzyno was established in the first half of the 19th century on the outskirts of the city, at Unraustrasse (now Zielona Street). Traditionally, it was fenced with a stone wall and planted with trees, it took up about 0.1 ha. This was sufficient for the needs of the then not very numerous Jewish community in Węgorzyno. In 1812, when the Emancipation Edict was announced, 61 Jews lived in the city, fifty years later their number increased to over 120, which was the moment of the highest population in the community. In later years, Jews gradually left the city – in 1925 there were only 15 Jews, and the last Jewish citizen of the city left in 1938 after Kristallnacht (November 9-10), when the Jewish cemetery and synagogue were devastated.
After World War II, the cemetery was further destroyed. In the 1970s, only one oak remained from the old cemetery forest, and the wall was pulled down. In the mid-1990s, a residential building was erected in the necropolis.
(West Pomeranian Encyclopedia; http://encyklopedia.szczecin.pl)