Jewish Cemetery in Tarnów

The original gate of Tarnów's Jewish cemetery, through which thousands of Jews passed during the Holocaust, has been held since 1991 by the Holocaust Museum in the United States — a copy stands in its place. Behind it lies one of the oldest Jewish burial grounds in Poland: 3.2 hectares, around 3,000 surviving gravestones and an oldest matzevah dated 1667. Surveys in 2018–2019 showed that more than 11,000 people are buried here.

History: from the 16th century to the Holocaust

The founding date is unknown, but surviving documents indicate that the cemetery already existed in 1581. Over the following centuries members of Tarnów's Jewish community were buried here. During the war the Germans deported and murdered Tarnów's Jews, and to the right behind the gate lies the mass grave of about 25,000 victims from the Tarnów ghetto. In 1946 Dawid Beckert placed a memorial above it in the form of a broken column taken from the ruins of the New Synagogue.

Care of the cemetery was taken over by the Committee for the Protection of Jewish Heritage in Tarnów, founded in February 1988. The wall was repaired, and since 2000 the grounds have been cleared. In 2018, 27 graves of soldiers who died in the First World War were restored in the military section. In 2017–2019 the biggest project so far was carried out: repair and partial rebuilding of the wall, surfaced paths, wheelchair access, lighting, and an inventory of graves with GPS locations and readings of the inscriptions.

What to see

• The broken-column memorial of 1946 above the mass grave of the ghetto victims.
• Ornate matzevot with carved tops, some set in rows along the fence.
• The military section with restored graves of First World War soldiers.
• The copy of the old gate — the original is displayed in the US Holocaust museum.

Tracing ancestors

The Committee holds the names of roughly half of the more than 11,000 people buried here. The inventory of gravestones and inscriptions from which at least two pieces of data could be read was prepared by the Foundation for Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland, and the database is available online. There is also a mobile app and a new trail for visitors. The cemetery's history is described in Adam Bartosz's book "The Jewish Cemetery in Tarnów" (2019), published in Polish and English.

Tripto tips

The cemetery is on ul. Szpitalna. According to the Committee it is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 13:00. Outside those hours the key can be borrowed around the clock, against a deposit, from the gatehouse of the E. Szczeklik Hospital (the "Old Hospital"), in the security building at the entrance from ul. Starodąbrowska, about 300 m from the cemetery. This is a place of remembrance: keep quiet, do not step on graves, and men should cover their heads. Allow about an hour for an unhurried walk, and combine the visit with a walk around the Old Town.