Description of the attraction
The Jewish cemetery in the Polish city of Kielce is now a closed cemetery. It was founded in 1868 and has an area of 3, 12 hectares. There are over 330 gravestones on the territory of the cemetery.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, with the rapid development of Jewish settlements in Kielce, local religious communities were faced with the need to organize a new burial site. Earlier, a few Jewish burials were performed in a neighboring settlement. For these purposes, a plot of land was purchased located outside the urban area. People were buried in the new cemetery, many of whom played a significant role in the life of the city.
During World War II, the Nazis carried out numerous executions of the Jewish population in the cemetery. In May 1943, the Germans killed 45 children between the ages of 15 months and 15 years.
After the end of World War II, the largest pogrom against the Jewish population in Poland took place in Kielce, during which 47 Jews were killed. In June 1946, the burial ceremony of the victims of the pogrom took place. The coffins with the bodies were laid in a mass grave. The mourning ceremony was attended by several thousand people, including representatives of national and foreign Jewish organizations and political parties. After the pogrom, the Jews began to gradually leave the city.
Devastated during the occupation, the cemetery began to look abandoned. Many gravestones were broken, graves were desecrated. In 1956, the city authorities decided to officially close the cemetery.
In 2010, on the initiative of Jan Karski, with the support of private individuals, a new monument to the victims of the pogrom in Kielce was built. The author of the project is Professor Marek Čekula. The monument is made of sandstone, the names of all the victims who died on July 4, 1946 are engraved on it.
