Obj. ID: 51662
Jewish Funerary Art  Jewish cemetery in Gdańsk (Wrzeszcz, formerly known as Danzig-Langfuhr Jewish Cemetery), Poland

According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the Jewish cemetery in Wrzeszcz was established in the 18th century, most probably before 1775. It was situated in the southern part of the settlement, in the vicinity of the Święta Wells manor, in the range of moraine hills, on Królewski Wzgórze. Currently, the cemetery can be easily reached from ul. Romuald Traugutt.

The cemetery was devastated by Russian soldiers in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars. Due to the desecration of the necropolis, no burials were organized there for 10 years. Only after 1823, the cemetery started to be used again. It was open until 1939, when the Jewish community sold its area to the Senate of the Free City of Gdańsk. The formal closure took place only in 1946.

The necropolis had the shape of an irregular polygon. Currently, there are steps leading through its centre, at which the casing of the graves made of bricks has been preserved. There are several significant fragments of tombstones in the cemetery. As Monika Leniewicz writes – Currently (…) there are only seven tombstones left, the oldest of which dates back to 1823. Currently, it is very difficult to find the few tombstones that remind us of the Jewish cemetery that used to be here, because most of the tombstones are overturned and lie disgraced in the bushes.
Currently, the cemetery is part of the nearby forest and is treated as a place for walks.
(sztetl.org.pl)

ESJF surveyors found nine badly damaged tombstones and many small pieces, probably fragments of tombstones. The stairs and some of the old cemetery trees have also survived. The area is littered and generally neglected. The cemetery is not marked in any form. 

Several tombstones from the cemetery on Traugutta Street were moved to the lapidarium known as the Cemetery of Defunct Cemeteries. It was opened on May 24, 2002 at 3, Maja Street, next to the central bus station, to commemorate the Tri-City necropolises of various denominations, destroyed after the Second World War.

The cemetery is located to the west of Dom Studencki, near 2, Politechniki Gdańskiej (Student House No. 2 of the Gdańsk University of Technology) at 115b, Traugutta Street.