Old Podgórze Jewish Cemetery
Kraków Cemeteries
This Jewish cemetery (Podgórze district) was founded in 1887 by the Podgórze Jewish community on the southern slope of Łysa Góra. In the Second World War the Germans built the Plaszow camp on this site and used the gravestones to pave roads and lay barrack foundations. Today the bases of a dozen or so gravestones survive, along with one gravestone, that of Chaim Jakób Abrahamer, who died in 1932. The site was tidied in 2003 and 2005, also by young people from Poland and Israel. It is a place of remembrance, so please be solemn.
History
The Jewish cemetery on Jerozolimska Street was founded in 1887 by the Jewish community of Podgórze, on the southern slope of Łysa Góra. From 1932 it adjoined a second Jewish cemetery, intended for the Kraków community. During the Second World War the Germans devastated the cemetery and set up the Plaszow camp on its grounds. Almost all the matzevot and gravestones were used to surface roads and to build the foundations of barracks. Abandoned after the war, the site gradually fell into decay. The bases of a dozen or so gravestones have survived, along with one complete gravestone, that of Chaim Jakób Abrahamer, who died in 1932. In 2003 some of the trees were cut down, the grass was mown and the gravestone bases were dug out. In summer 2005, at the turn of June and July, the site was tidied up by young people from Poland and Israel taking part in the Antyschematy project. In 2022 the boundaries of the cemetery were marked out with natural dyes.
Did you know?
Somewhere in the cemetery lies a plot of soldiers who died in the First World War, but today it is hard to say exactly where.