Obj. ID: 52034
Jewish Funerary Art Jewish cemetery in Częstochowa, Poland
According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the cemetery is located about 3 km southeast of the city centre, at Złota Street, and covers an irregularly shaped plot with an area of about 8.5 hectares (ha). The cemetery was established in 1808 and the area was gradually enlarged. It was embanked and fenced. There was a funeral house at the entrance. Notable locals (tzadiks) Pinchas Menachem Eliezer Justman (died on November 20, 1920) and Awigdor Szapiro (died on March 10, 1928), are buried there. During World War II, the Germans carried out numerous executions at the cemetery. In June 1943, they shot no less than 1,000 people, and about 500 people in July 1943. At that time, the devastation of the facility began. By order of the Germans, some matzevot were used for construction works.
After 1945, the Congregation for the Jewish Faith in Częstochowa repaired the wall, demolished the ruined funeral house, and marked the identified graves of the victims of the Holocaust. In 1946, the funeral of Szmul Rembak and Dawid Józef Gruszka took place, who were both killed on the day of the Kielce pogrom on the train from Kielce to Częstochowa. The last funerals took place in 1970. In 1953, the local ironworks annexed 2.5 ha of the cemetery plot. Plans for further takeover of the cemetery area by the ironworks were not implemented. The ruin of the cemetery by the local population became a significant problem.
There are several thousand tombstones in the cemetery. Vegetation overgrowth is a serious problem. Since the 1980’s, cleaning and restoration work has been carried out at the cemetery at the initiative of the Lansmanshaft of Częstochowa Jews and the city authorities. The condition of the cemetery is poor. A secluded location of the cemetery in addition to the incomplete fence both contribute to the problem. The legal status of the cemetery is not regulated. The property is listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments.
There is an ohel with no roof with and two tombstones: one of Pinchas Menachem Eliezer from Pilica (author of the “Shivtei Zedek”) and one of his son, Yitzhak Meir Justman. The cemetery is partially fenced. There is a stone wall about 1.6 meters high from the side of Złota Street. From the north and south, the area of the cemetery is surrounded by an earth embankment. Additionally, from the south, there is a railway embankment. To the east, a wire mesh fence belonging to the factory adjacent to the cemetery.
ESJF team has found about 4,000 gravestones.
Entrance to the cemetery area is by the eastern side of Zlota Street; 250 meters southeast of the house on Złota, 214.
