The Częstochowa Jewish Cemetery Today
- the third largest Jewish Cemetery in Poland
The Częstochowa Jewish Cemetery dates back to the late 18th Century. It is the third largest Jewish cemetery in Poland, containing around 4,500 graves in an area of about 8.5 hectares. The last burial here took place in 1973.
During World War II, the cemetery became the site of numerous mass executions. Not only were partisans killed here, but men, women and children who were deemed unfit for work were also murdered on this site.
Sadly, o
ver time, the general condition of this cemetery has deteriorated. With the demise of its previous owner, the Częstochowa Żydowska Gmina, no one, until now, has been prepared to take the responsibility of restoring this sacred site to a state appropriate to its sanctity.
In time for our Fourth Reunion in October 2012, the Mayor of Częstochowa, Krzysztof Matyjaszczyk, and the Częstochowa City Council surprised us by not only restoring the Cemetery gates, but also by restoring the central memorial monument to an even better condition than its original state.
Our recent years, thanks to World Society Vice-President and Chairman of the Association of Częstochowa Jews in Israel Alon Goldman, groups of students have been coming from Israel, and together with local students, have been working on creating an inventory of graves and have done massive clean-ups of major sections of the cemetery. Pictures of their past good works have featured in the NEWS section of our website – they will again!
In 2012, the Częstochowa Museum published the first volume of a major inventory of the cemetery graves which was created by Wiesław Paszkowski of the Częstochowa Municipal Archives.
Nearly all of us have relatives buried in this sacred ground and we ALL have the obligation to ensure that their final resting place is dignified and appropriately maintained. In the future, we will be calling upon landsleit to contribute towards the completion of this project.