Obj. ID: 52254
Jewish Funerary Art  Site of the Old Jewish cemetery in Świnoujście, Poland

According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the first Jews settled in Świnoujście only a few years after the emancipation edict of 1812 granting them civic rights in the Prussian state. As early as 1821, the community asked the city authorities to assign the area to a Jewish cemetery. They were given land near the Protestant cemetery in Friedenstraße (now Chopin Street). With time, it turned out that the communal cemetery became too small for a rapidly developing community and city, and in 1875, the city council suggested that the Jewish community move the cemetery further from the city centre to include the area of the old necropolis into the municipal cemetery. The community agreed to the new area, but did not intend to give up the old cemetery and move the graves to the new cemetery, which was explained on religious grounds. This was done only in 1928, after many years of dispute, in accordance with the required ritual and at the expense of the city. Today, the cemetery area is part of the city park.

ESJF team has found some large concrete fragments on the site, but they are probably not parts of tombstones, perhaps it is a former cemetery fencing. Only the south-western side of the cemetery is fenced, with metal mesh fencing belonging to the nearby private property.