In co-operation 2020 with the association Blusztyn (PL) and historian dr. Seweryn Szczepański

In the history of the Jews in Rastenburg there was an old and a new synagogue in addition to many Jewish residential and commercial buildings. There are many pictures and stories about this on our page History of the Jews in Rastenburg. Here we have collected what can be reported about the Jewish cemetery of the city.

In 1925 Rabbi Siebert Neufeldt wrote a travel report through the East Prussian Jewish communities. Under Rastenburg he mentions a Jewish cemetery, which was about 120 years old at that time (from about 1805). It had a cemetery hall and was located at the gas station.

The Jewish cemetery, which was probably heavily destroyed during the 1938 progrom night, was located at the foot of the southern slope of the then Protestant cemetery. Today there are garages of public transport bus depots and perhaps partly garages of the State Fire Brigade (the matter requires a thorough investigation on site). A fragment of a Jewish gravestone was found in a town pond and is exhibited in the local history museum, the Wojciech Kętrzyn Museum.

Plaque commemorating the Jewish cemetery
founded in the nineteenth century  in the vicinity of
the current municipal cemetery on the southern slope.
Jews lived in Kętrzyn from 1813, contributing to the city’s development.
After the events of the “Crystal Night” on November 9‐10, 1938
most of them left Kętrzyn. Only a few survived the Holocaust.
Honor their blessed memory.
Inhabitants of Kętrzyn
Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage
2013/5773

More Pictures and Stories on Jewish life in the city of Rastenburg in the publication of the Blusztyn Association updated 2019 and translated by us in English. Find our description and the link to order the Pdf-file for free at this webpage: The history of the Jews in Rastenburg >>

Description of Jewish places of worship and cemeteries within the boundaries of the current administrative region of Warmia-Masuria (in Polish). Seweryn Szczepański, Rocznik Ziem Zachodnich 01/2017 (Yearbook of the Western Lands) >>

Picture of Cemetery from Webpage Wirtualny Sztetl Polin Museum >>

In Kooperation 2020 with association Blusztyn (PL) and historian dr. Seweryn Szczepański