A Virtual Tour of Jewish Lodz

The Old Cemetery on ul. Wesola

Site of the old Jewish cemetery on ul. Wesola.

Before this cemetery was founded in 1811, the Jews of Lodz were buried in Lutomiersk or Strykow. The Chevra Kadisha (Burial Society) was founded at the same time. By the time it closed to burials in 1892, the cemetery held nearly 4,000 tombstones, often without ornamentation, rectangular in shape or in curved triangles. The graves of the tzaddiks and rabbis were marked by masonry ohels.
    During the interwar period, the former mortuary served as a hospital for the mentally ill. The first deportations from the Lodz ghetto left from this site. The cemetery was partially destroyed in 1942 after the German administration of the ghetto ordered all tombstones removed for use as paving stones. In the early 1950s the cemetery was completely destroyed. The only surviving remnant is the cemetery gate, placed in the wall of the new cemetery.

Facts taken from: A Guide to the Jewish Cemetery in Lodz, Lodz City Office, 1997, and A Guide to Jewish Lodz, by Jerzy Malenczyk, 1994.
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