Petersilge’s House in Lodz

The Jewish cemetery in Bracka Street was founded in 1892. Originally it was used as a burial ground for the victims of the choleric disease. The complex is encompassed from the south and the east by the Dory residential district and the school complex. It is further protected by the high, brick wall, while the ornamented gate from Chryzantem Street has been long since closed. The visitor’s immediate contact with the necropolis of the Lodz Jews is the more unexpected since the cemetery is now entered through a side gate from Bracka Street.

There is the Pre-Burial House behind the cemetery wall, for the sake of the rituals preceding the burial itself. The building was raised in 1898, ace. In its neighbourhood the Victims of the Ghetto Memorial was erected in 1956. The next, inner gate opens on the necropolis proper. Its main axis is the main alley, lined with most monumental tombs and monuments of the industrialists’ families. The most outstanding form was given to I. K. Poznanski’s mausoleum. The stone dome is lined with the fine mosaic from the Salviati studio in Venice. The image of the necropolis is yet dominated by thousands of simple tombstones. For the past dozen or so years the cemetery has been put under protection to stop its rummaging and devastation. Some tombs have been subject to conservation work. It is still too little for that magnificent monument of the Jewish culture of the European recognition to regard it as saved.

Address: 40 Bracka Street 
[Lodz]