The Jewish cemetery in ul. Bracka - Lodz - TravBuddy

The Jewish cemetery was founded in 1892. Originally it was used as a burial ground for the victims of the choleric disease. The complex is encompassed from the south and the east by the Dory residential di­strict and the school complex. It is further protected by the high, brick wall, while the ornamented gate from ul. Chryzantem has been long since closed. The visitor's immediate contact with the necropolis of the Lodz Jews is the more unexpected since the cemetery is now ente­red through a side gate from ul. Bracka. There is the Pre-Burial House behind the cemetery wall, for the sake of the rituals preceding the burial itself. The building was raised in 1898, ace. to the design by A. Zeligson. In its neighbourhood the Victims of the Ghetto Memorial was erected in 1956. The next, inner gate opens on the necro­polis proper. Its main axis is the main alley, lined with most monumental tombs and monuments of the indu­strialists' families. The most outstanding form was given to I. K. Poznariski's mausoleum. It was erected in the years 1903-1905, probably on the basis of the design by A. Zeligson. The stone dome is lined with the fine mosa­ic from the Salviati studio in Venice. Next to it there are the tombs of the Jarocinskis, the Hertzes, the Prussaks, and many other Lodz industrialist families. Some of them were given a most lavish visual form - sometimes refer­ring to antique motifs, but also the Art Nouveau.

The image of the necropolis is yet dominated by tho­usands of simple tombstones - the mazevahs. Among them the ohels stand out, i.e. the relatively small tombs usually marking the graves of eminent zaddiks and rab­bis. In the southern part of the cemetery, along ul. Brac-ka, there are the burial plots from the last war. The Jews who had died or had been killed in the Lodz ghetto were buried there.

For the past dozen or so years the cemetery has been put under protection to stop its rummaging and deva­station. Some tombs have been subject to conservation work. It is still too little for that magnificent monument of the Jewish culture of the European recognition to re­gard it as saved.

NB: The cemetery is dosed on Saturdays and on Jewish Holidays, visiting males are requested to wear headgear.