Obj. ID: 52151
Jewish Funerary Art  Site of the Jewish cemetery in Barczewo, Poland

According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the  cemetery is demolished and unfenced. No tombstones have preserved in situ. About 15 tombstones from the cemetery are gathered in the lapidarium next to the synagogue (Kościuszki 9 Street). The synagogue was closed that day, but our field team took some pictures over the fence. List of tombstones from Wartenburg/Barczewo lapidarium is available on http://cmentarze-zydowskie.pl/barczewo.htm and http://www.jewsineastprussia.org/

Date of the oldest tombstone: 1877 (info by www.jewsineastprussia.org), 1882 (photo by ESJF)
Date of the latest tombstone: 1930 (photo by ESJF)
Perimeter length: 129 metres

The Jewish cemetery in Barczewo was established in 1871 at Guttstädter Strasse (today’s Warmińska Street), about 450 m north-west of the town centre, outside the built-up area, on a plot of land in the shape of an elongated rectangle. It is known that there was a wooden preburial house at the entrance. The cemetery was partially devastated during World War II, when some matzevot were converted into tombstones of German soldiers. However, the building survived the war in relatively good condition. In the early 1970s it was still surrounded by a mesh fence, within it there were about 100 tombstones. On 16 October 1961, the Ministry of Municipal Economy issued a decision to close the cemetery for burial purposes (decision Uz-c/11/68/60). In 1976, the municipal authorities decided to remove the gravestones from the cemetery. Some of them were taken over by the Masurian Museum, others were buried in a gravel pit or used by local stonecutters. Piggies and a shed were placed in the cemetery. In 1995, a boulder with a plaque with an inscription was placed on the edge of the cemetery: “The place of the former Jewish cemetery”. A fragment of the cemetery was surrounded by a wooden fence. In 2017, thanks to the efforts of, among others, Krystyna Szter from the Social and Cultural Association “Pojezierze”, about 20 found tombstones were placed in the yard of the former synagogue in Barczewo [Jews in East Prussia].