Jewish Cemetery in Zgorzelec

The site near Koźlice, close to Zgorzelec, is named "Jewish cemetery", but there is no traditional kirkut with gravestones here. As the Wikipedia entry on the site states, only a mass grave from the Second World War has survived in Zgorzelec, in which murdered Jewish prisoners from the Stalag VIII A prisoner-of-war camp were buried.

The cemetery was on the other side of the border

The actual historic Jewish cemetery for this area was located in Görlitz, that is, on the German side of the town now divided by the Lusatian Neisse. It served as the kirkut for the Jewish community of Zgorzelec and Görlitz before 1945. On the Polish side, no corresponding cemetery with gravestones has survived.

Mass grave of Stalag VIII A victims

What is commemorated in Zgorzelec is the mass grave of Jewish prisoners of war from the Stalag VIII A camp, murdered during the Second World War. The sources do not give details of the site's current marking, fencing or state of preservation.

Practical information

• Area: Koźlice, Zgorzelec County
• Character of the site: a wartime mass grave, not a traditional cemetery with gravestones
• Nearby it is worth seeing the Zgorzelec-Görlitz Old Town Bridge, connecting the town with the former location of the kirkut in Görlitz, and Stalag VIII A, linked to the history of the victims buried here
• The exact accessibility and marking of the site are worth checking before visiting, for example at the municipal office or a local historical society