Obj. ID: 49326
Funerary Art Jewish cemetery in Suwałki, Poland
According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the cemetery was established around 1820. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a funeral house at the entrance. There were tombstones of various forms at the cemetery, including stelae, obelisks, and ohels. The cemetery began to decay during World War II. Some tombstones were used by the Germans to build a swimming pool and to pave the streets. In the 1950s, the area was used as a horse market and for cattle grazing. Despite the degradation, there were still burials at the cemetery as of 2010 and 2012. In the 1980s, at the initiative of Rabbi Dawid Lifszyc, the cemetery was fenced and cleaned up. Lapidaries were arranged using the preserved and recovered tombstones. A monument commemorating the rabbis from Suwałki was also funded.
Within the cemetery, there are about 300 tombstones, including about 220 with legible inscriptions (the list is available at http://cmentarskie-zydowskie.pl/suwalki.htm), in various states of preservation. There are mostly destroyed ones gathered in lapidaries.
ESJF field team has discovered 370 tombstones, however only 19 were in situ. Some intact tombstones lay on the ground, and the majority of the tombstones (more than 300) are interred in three lapidarium. The first lapidarium (containing around 100 tombstones) is a concrete pedestal on the ground, in which pieces of tombstones are embedded. Two other wall lapidaries (containing around 200 tombstones) in the central part of the cemetery.
There are different types of fence around the cemetery. There is a new masonry wall along Zarzecze street, 1.5-1.7 m high; a damaged old stone wall in the woods along the northern border, 1.7-2 m high; a concrete wall along the southern border, 1.7-2 m high as well as a metal fence along the western border, 1.7-2 m high. The side entrance is always open. The owner of the cemetery is the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage. The facility is listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments of the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
The cemetery is located about 500 metres southwest of the market square, at Zarzecze Street, and covers a plot shaped like a rectangle, with an area of approximately 3.82 hectares.
