About this unmarked cemetery we can tell many stories, but at the end of 2020 a new story was added. The area of the Königsberg New Jewish Cemetery in Kaliningrad was observed by us since the 1990s. This cemetery existed from 1929 until the end of the war. The then very modern funeral hall by the German star architect Erich Mendelsohn was destroyed by the Germans on November 10, 1938, and the rubble can still be found in the grounds today. Many traces of gravesites can still be seen. In 2010, we noticed a single completely preserved toppled gravestone.
On its back is written the name Jacob Klimowsky. The Jewish family Klimowsky in East Prussia was known to us, but we had no further clues about this person. At the end of 2020, contact was made with the descendants, and now we have several pictures and his family history. Jacob served in the German Army during the First World War.
He lived in Königsberg with his wife and two children. In 1933 the 55 year old died after an operation. His family was able to emigrate in 1939. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren live today in Israel, the USA and Switzerland. They were not aware that their ancestor who stayed behind in Königsberg happened to belong to the only preserved gravestone of this cemetery. Sometimes you have to wait a decade to get answers. Hopefully, one day this piece of history and the deceased will be properly commemorated locally.
In Simcha February issue 2021, the newspaper of the Jewish congregations Kaliningrad, was reported about this discovery of the family history from Königsberg.