Jewish Cemetery in Bytom

The Jewish cemetery in Bytom on Piekarska Street was founded in 1866. It is one of three active Jewish cemeteries in the Silesian Voivodeship and is entered in the heritage register. On its grounds stands a Neo-Gothic pre-burial house, and by the fence a Wall of Remembrance made of matzevot (gravestones) from the former, liquidated cemetery.

History of the cemetery

The land for the new cemetery was donated by Dr Otto Friedlaender. Around 1890 a Neo-Gothic pre-burial house was erected, built with funds from the foundation of Moritz and Otto Friedlaender, and in 1894 the cemetery was enclosed with a brick wall. From 1939 the manager was the Reich Association of Jews in Germany. During the Second World War the cemetery was not destroyed.

The scope of the register entry includes, among others, the burial society building, the funeral house with a coach house, and the fence with gates. The entry has a longer history in this case: the first decision from the end of 2010 was revoked in 2011, and the site was entered again later in the same year.

Layout and matzevot

The layout is based on two intersecting avenues from which smaller paths branch. Old horse chestnuts grow here, and the gravestones are often overgrown with ivy. The surviving matzevot were made in various styles, including Renaissance, Art Nouveau and modernist.

The Wall of Remembrance and the old cemetery

By the fence on the Prusa Street side the architect Marek Miodoński and the sculptor Stanisław Pietrusa erected a Wall of Remembrance from matzevot saved from the old Jewish cemetery. Near it stands a monument to the Dutch Jews, victims of forced labour in Silesia during the Second World War.

The old cemetery was founded in 1732 on the town ramparts by today's Piastów Bytomskich Street. Among others, four rabbis of Bytom were buried in it. The last burial took place in 1897, and the cemetery was liquidated in the 1960s. The matzevot were taken to a pile at the municipal cemetery, from which the first Wall of Remembrance was built in 1991. On the gate of the house on Piastów Bytomskich Street a plaque was set commemorating the existence of the former necropolis.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Piekarska 56, Bytom.
• The cemetery is active, so the rules of conduct appropriate to a burial place apply; the rules of entry and the key to the gate are best arranged in advance with the Jewish community.
• Nearby, about a kilometre away, stands the building of the Silesian Opera.