Obj. ID: 52125
Jewish Funerary Art  Site of the Jewish cemetery in Kętrzyn, Poland

In 1925 Rabbi Siebert Neufeldt wrote a travel report through the East Prussian Jewish communities. Under Rastenburg he mentions a Jewish cemetery, which was about 120 years old at that time (from about 1805). It had a cemetery hall and was located at the gas station. The Jewish cemetery, which was probably heavily destroyed during the 1938 pogrom night, was located at the foot of the southern slope of the then Protestant cemetery. Today there are garages of public transport bus depots and perhaps partly garages of the State Fire Brigade. A fragment of a Jewish gravestone was found in a town pond and is exhibited in the local history museum, the Wojciech Kętrzyński Museum [Jews in East Prussia].

According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the Jewish cemetery of Kętrzyn is demolished and overbuilt by private and municipal properties. Currently, the area belongs to the communal cemetery, bus depot and probably the fire brigade. Only the slope of the hill, which used to be part of the Jewish cemetery, is undeveloped.no structures have preserved in situ. The only reminder of the existence of the cemetery is a memorial plaque installed by FODZ on the entrance gate of communal cemetery (Cmentarna Street).

Holocaust memorial plaque in Kętrzyn, Poland