Jewish Cemetery in Kielce

In the second half of the nineteenth century, due to the rapid development of Jewish settlement in Kielce, the local Jewish community faced a necessity of orginising a new burial place. Previously, few Jews of Kielce buried their dead in the cemetery in nearby Checiny. Because of this in 1868 land in the farm Pakosz was purchased at the junction of the current Pakosz Dolny and Kusocinskiego Streets. At that time it was a parcel of land located outside built-up areas. 

In Kielce also functioned a society called Chesed Shel Emet, which covered the cost of funerals of the poor and lonely. With time, a mortuary was built, which was called in Hebrew beyt tahara, the accommodation for the caretaker and gravedigger was furnished, the fence was built and the access road was hardened. Initially a small area of the cemetery was enlarged in the twenties of the 20th century. The cemetery is the burial place of many people who played a significant role in the life of Kielce. During the Second World War on the terrirory of the necropolis Nazis performed numerous executions on the Jewish population. Bodies of the murdered Jews and of those who died in the ghetto in Kielce were buried there as well. On the 8th July 1946 the cemetery was the place of the funeral of the victims of the Kielce pogrom in 1937. Even today on the territory of the necropolis remained several hundred matzevot and their parts used in the construction of the monument and arranged in rows.