Obj. ID: 52265
Jewish Funerary Art Jewish section in the municipal cemetery in Sławno, Poland
According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the Jewish section in the municipal cemetery was demolished but not overbuilt. Many old trees are preserved. Almost the entire south-western side is fenced with the original old brick wall, a relic of the Jewish section. All remaining tombstones are gathered in the large lapidarium, built in the north-western part of the Jewish section. There are 101 parts of tombstones. Some old traces of digging are visible in the ground (in the form of longitudinal depressions corresponding to the size of the graves). The cemetery is fenced with different types of fencing (metal mesh, low concrete wall, old brick-made wall). Height is from 30 cm to more than 200 cm.
The cemetery is located at the junction of Gdańska and Sempołowskiej streets (Sempołowskiej Street is in fact a cemetery alley). Access is through the main gate from Działkowa Street.
The Jewish cemetery in Sławno was established in the first half of the 19th century at Stolper Vorstadt (now Gdańska Street), next to the new municipal cemetery. In 1904, the area of the cemetery was extended to an area of about 0.4 ha, and a new stone cemetery wall was built.
The necropolis was devastated during Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938). In the following years, the increasingly devastated Jewish cemetery in the 1960s was deprived of the tombstones that had been used to build roads. In 1999, a memorial plaque made by the sculptor Zygmunt Wujek from Koszalin was unveiled: "In memory of the Jewish Community living in the vicinity of Sławno since 1812. In 1938, the Nazis burned down all synagogues and destroyed the tombstones. By 1942, all Jews were expelled from Sławno, most of them to the death camps in the east. Only the ruins of the cemetery remain."