Poland -- Article on Jewish Cemetery in Lodz

 Poznanski tomb, Lodz, under restoration in 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

There's a nice article (by DPA) on the large Jewish Cemetery in Lodz -- though it incorrectly states that the cemetery is the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. The much older Jewish cemetery in Warsaw and, certainly Budapest's vast Kozma utca Jewish cemetery, have more burials and also more varied styles of tombstones and mauslea. The Jewish Cemetery in Lodz does have a very informative web site with a map and pictures and links to an expanding data base that so far includes the names of 90,000 people buried in the cemetery.

 Map of the cemetery, Lodz. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Tombstone showing traces of painting. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Here's part of the DPA story:

Lodz, Poland - Lodz' Jewish cemetery is an impressive sight, with its long avenues, old trees, mausoleums that look like ancient temples and thousands of headstones. Some are badly weathered and it is impossible to read the inscriptions on many. Graves are covered in ivy and most of them date back to before the Second World War.[...]

The Jewish cemetery has some stunning examples of opulent graves built by a middle class who were prepared to spend almost as much money on mausoleums as they did on houses for the living.

In his day, Izrael Poznanski, for example, was the most well known Jewish factory owner in the city and accrued a fortune from textile manufacturing. He lies buried with his wife Leonia in a mausoleum that cost a fortune to build.[...]

There are many other fine examples of ostentatious graves in the cemetery. The tomb of the Prussak family is a domed roof supported by four columns with four steps. Many of the tombs were built in the art nouveau style, such as that for the Rapppaport family.

The parents of the classical pianist Artur Rubinstein are also buried in the cemetery. Their comparatively simple gravestone survived the war along with thousands of other ordinary headstones. The headstones are usually made of sandstone or limestone and are often decorated with a Star of David or a hand in blessing. The image of a book indicates the headstone marks the grave of a learned person.

Read full article here

Lodz Jewish Cemetery. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber