Jewish Cemetery, Łódź, Poland

The Łódź Jewish Cemetery, also known as the New Jewish Cemetery, was once the largest Jewish cemetery in Poland and one of the largest in the world. The necropolis was opened in 1892 and occupies around 44 hectares of land. The cemetery contains from 180,000 to 230,000 marked graves, as well as mass graves of victims of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto and the Holocaust. From 1893 to 1896, the basic construction of the necropolis was completed under the supervision of well-known architect Adolf Zeligson.

The circular access is provided by the gate from the southern side on the axis of Abram Cukier Street, which is an extension Chryzantem Street. Pedestrian access is possible from the east through a gate in the wall stretching along Zmienna Street. The composition of the foundation is based on the arrangement of two mutually perpendicular axes. The first one leads from the main gate to the square in front of the pre-funeral house. Alongside it, there were once buildings associated with the functioning of the necropolis, in addition to the pre-burial house, this complex included a synagogue, a residential house for cemetery service, a water tower, a mikveh and other minor construction facilities.

Today over a hundred of historical gravesites have been declared historical monuments and are in various stages of restoration. The mausoleum of Izrael Poznański is perhaps the largest Jewish tombstone in the world and the only one containing decorative mosaic.

The cemetery continues to function as a Jewish burial site.

References:

Wikipedia

Religious sites in Poland

User Reviews

Gitty Rosenberg (2 years ago)
As a whole the cemetery is well maintained although there are many tombstones that have been damaged or otherwise fallen into disrepair. There are approximately 43k victims of the Lodz Ghetto buried in the 'Ghetto Field' part of the cemetery (left side, back part of the cemetery). When this cemetery was originally inaugurated it was the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe, and to date there are approximately 230k graves on the premises. For those looking to visit Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim M'Lodz Meisel: his grave is located just as you enter on the right, first row, in the second gated area.

Sylwia Saletrowicz (4 years ago)
During pandemic cementary is open just on Sunday between 9am-3pm, but you will not find any information about that in the internet

Odds and Ends (5 years ago)
Disappointed it said on the website it was open but when I arrived it was closed and every time I rang the office just got a buzzing sound

Mia (5 years ago)
Ticket office ať the entrance od the cementary??!! Seriously? It was the biggest shock I got in the Poland!

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