Jewish Cemeteries in Koszalin

Koszalin had two Jewish cemeteries: the old one, established in 1750 on Orla Street, and the new one, from the early 20th century, on Racławicka Street. Both were destroyed, and both sites today are commemorated by monuments.

The old cemetery on Orla Street

The cemetery was also used by the Jewish community of Sianów and other places. It was closed in 1900, and in November 1938, during Kristallnacht, it was completely devastated. The site was tidied through the efforts of the town authorities and in agreement with the Jewish Religious Community. A memorial stone stands here, beside which the only surviving matzevah (Jewish gravestone) has been placed. It was found in the river in 2000 by the photographer Zdzisław Pacholski. The name of David Baruch and the dates 1840 and 1879 can be read on it. The matzevah went for a time to the Koszalin Museum, and in the summer of 2005 it returned to the cemetery. The restored necropolis was opened on 14 July 2005.

The new cemetery on Racławicka Street

The new cemetery was established at the beginning of the 20th century, and the oldest gravestones, of polished granite, dated from 1900. It was devastated even before the war, and after 1945 it was closed down. The buildings of the Teachers' College, today the Koszalin University of Technology, were erected on its land. In May 2006 a monument was unveiled here: a slab styled as a matzevah with a relief of a broken tree, a symbol of an interrupted life, with an inscription in Polish and Hebrew in memory of the Jews of Koszalin buried in this cemetery in 1900-1938.

Practical information

• The old cemetery: Orla Street, a memorial stone and a matzevah. The new cemetery: the area of Racławicka Street, on university grounds.
• These are places of remembrance, and conduct appropriate to a cemetery is expected.
• The history of the Jewish community of Koszalin is also recalled by the synagogue in Koszalin.