Cmentarze żydowskie w Białymstoku

Abstract

It appears that six cemetaries were used throughaut centuries by the Jewish community in Białystok. The first one, from the second half of the 16th century, was probably located at the southern frontage of the Kościuszko Market (at the mouth of present Sienkiewicza Street), but neither its existence nor its absence can be confirmed with sufficient proof. The second, at the so called „Suraż suburb", carne from the 18th century. The oldest tomb here dated from 1764. This cemetary was situated on Kalinowskiego Street, more or less at the location of the present Park Centralny. It was divided into sections and had alleys marked out. It had functioned till about 1890. Next was the so called „cholera" cemetary situated at Bema Street (at about the present market site). It was established in 1840 with the aim to contain graves of contagious disseases victims (among them those who died in the epidemics of cholera in the 1830s and 1840s). Also bodies of less well-off were buried here. The cemetary was closed in 1892. Two years earlier, at the area of previous village Bagnówka (now Wschodnia Street) fourth cemetary was located, near orthodox and catholic cemetaries. Centrary to previously mentioned Jewish cemetaries, it still exists. The last burial took place in 1969. It is one of the largest Jewish cemetaries in Poland (its area measures about 12,5 h). Among monuments it contains the obelisk to the victims of pogroms of 14th, 15th and 16th June 1906. The most recent Jewish necropolis was the cemetary which, as the only one in the occupied Europe, was established at the area of the Ghetto (at Żabia Street) on August 1, 1941. The bodies of 3 500 victilns were buried here, among them fighters of the Ghetto Uprising. The Burial Society (Chewra Kadisza) functioned here till the Ghetto was destroyed in August 1943 The graves were simple, either for one person or common. In the years 1944-49 the cemetary was tidied up and enlarged (through buying out private plots of ground). The families of the dead and the murdered put up new tombs, frequently symbolic when the location of the body was not known. The cemetary became the location of the obelisk to the victims of the Ghetto, the obelisk to the fighters of the Uprising and ohel (a tent-mausoleum) to commemorate the fighters of the Uprising and Jewish partisans. At the beginning of the 70s, despite numerous protests, the city authorities decided to close down this unique cemetary. The remains of the victims were exhumed and put into a common grave. The tombs, the monuments and the mausoleum disappeared. Today the only evidence of the cemetary is a commemorative plaque erected in 1971.