Places

Established at the beginning of the 18th Century in accordance with the Jewish tradition, on a hill. The last burials in the cemetery took place in the 1930s. In the 1960s and 1970s, the cemetery was destroyed - the headstones (“matzevahs”) were hauled away and used as construction material. Local scavengers opened many graves looking for jewellery and other precious things that the dead had supposedly been buried with. In 2002, as part of the “Restore the Memory” (Polish: Przywrócić Pamięć) project, the cemetery was cleared and the headstones were cleaned up and restored. Information boards with the history of the Jews of Skwierzyna were also posted. One year later the cemetery was vandalised. It is currently falling into ruin due to lack of funds for another renovation. The cemetery is the last physical evidence of the many centuries of Jewish presence in Skwierzyna.