Lodz, jewish cemetery

the jewish presence in Lodz is notable. Poland was tolerant to the jewish presence during the whole XIX century. they have been there since the XV century, but more than once have been expelled, massacred and deprived from their business and goods. so it was only on the XIX century that the jewish communities could really flourish in Poland, specially in Warsaw and industrial cities like Lodz. in late XIX's there were a wave of jews fleeing from the russian Pogrom moving to Poland. They were absorbed by the jewish communities of the cities. at the time of the war,35% of the Lodz population was jewish.

http://shapingtime.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=105059945


in Lodz the textile factories were the fuel for the city's vibrant development and many of the most important of the factories were owned by jewish families as well their workers.

their presence left many traces in Lodz and the jewish cemetery is a special one.
it is located at Bracka street on the outskirts of the town, in one of the limits of the Guetto during the war.

the Bracka street cemetery is the new cemetery as there were and older one, whose land was sold years later for new buildings.
the size of the cemetery is enormous, with almost 40 hectare and have 160.000 people buried. it is considered the largest jewish cemetery in Europe.
better information can be obtained at the official page:


http://www.jewishlodzcemetery.org/EN/Home/Default.aspx

and

http://www.lodzjews.org/root/form/en/dzieje-zydow/index.asp


it was a sunny morning of a week day, when i took the tram to the final stop. there in the end of town, with a freeway on my side, i took the right path to Bracka street.

the cemetery aparently was empty, and inside the reception a woman not much interested in charge me for going in there (6 sloty).

the place is taken by the vegetation and trees share place with the graves. it is a very strong sight.
the cemetery is divided in sections like almost cemetery, and the graves face the same side - Jerusalem?, and with very few exceptions not sumptous.
I was told about some special tombstones that i could not find.

there is a work to recover the names and history of people buried in the cemetery.
during the war time 43.000 people were buried there over the 5 year duration of the guetto, which is the average number of 23,5 bodies buried there each day, almost one per hour.
and if as a whole around 200.000 person died at the Lodz guetto, the average of 109 persons dead everyday during 5 years of starvation, deseases and killed.
(citation needed mode off)

when it started to rain i was in the wild. in minutes i had my camera wet and my foot into the mud. i took the ground of that place with me for some days.

the poznanski mausoleum

the mausoleum of Izrael Poznanski and Eleonora Hertz is the largest jewish tombstone in the world. the textile industrial Izrael Poznanski died in 1900. his fortune was so big as he must have been important, because 112 years after his death some of the main sites of the city are still linked to him: his palace became a museum, his factory became the biggest complex of culture and shopping of the city, and his mausoleum is the biggest jewish tombstone ever.

Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznanski

there were still some information about the guetto, but after that walk i was ready to go back. all the way back was inside or around the former guetto, and i had a strange feeling to be there.

here is a link to a list of persons buried there during the time of the war, and some beautiful old photos from the cemetery, before it was taken by the vegetation.