• Old Jewish Cemetery, Klaipėda
A memorial wall with grave stones on the old Jewish cemetery - originally established under Prussian-German rule - in the port city of Klaipėda commemorate the annihilation of the city's Jewish community under National Socialism and the destruction of the complex by the Soviets after 1945.
Image: Klaipėda, undated, The no longer existent mortuary on the Jewish cemetery, with an inscription which reads »Beit Olam« (House of Eternity), Mažosios Lietuvos Istorijos Muziejus
Klaipėda, undated, The no longer existent mortuary on the Jewish cemetery, with an inscription which reads »Beit Olam« (House of Eternity), Mažosios Lietuvos Istorijos Muziejus

Image: Klaipėda, 2001, Entrance to the former Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda, 2001, Entrance to the former Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda (German: Memel) was founded in 1252. It was the oldest city in East Prussia and the northernmost city in the German Reich. Jewish life began to blossom at the beginning of the 19th century, in part due to the immigration from neighbouring tsarist Russia. In 1910, the Jewish community had 900 members. When the Treaty of Versailles came into effect in January 1920, Memel and the Memel Territory (Klaipėdos kraštas) were separated from the German Reich. At first administered by France, the city was occupied by Lithuanian troops - after a feigned uprising by Lithuanian nationalists - on January 10, 1923. The annexation to the Republic of Lithuania was internationally recognised, and in effect the number of Jews in Klaipėda rose to 4,000 due to migration from other parts of the country. At the beginning of the 1930s, there were several synagogues in the city, a Jewish hospital and a Jewish school; a quarter of all businesses and factories was owned by Jews. The Jewish community of Klaipėda had a cemetery and mortuary in the former Wallstraße.
The rise of the National Socialists in Germany led to increased support for the German nationalist movement also in the Klaipėda Region. Under severe pressure by the government in Berlin, the Lithuanian authorities were forced to return the Klaipėda Region to the German Reich. Many Jews left the area in panic, heading mostly for Lithuania. Jewish property was devastated in Memel (Klaipėda) and the cemetery transferred to the German National Trust.
In October 1944, the authorities evacuated the all civilians due to the approaching Red Army; in early 1945, the Wehrmacht surrendered the city. Soviet troops took the city on January 19, 1945, and the Klaipėda Region was incorporated into the Lithuanian Soviet Republic; the practically empty and severely damaged city was settled anew. The new authorities destroyed the German cemeteries in the area; the Jewish cemetery of Klaipėda was levelled and a jamming station built on the site.
Image: Klaipėda, undated, The no longer existent mortuary on the Jewish cemetery, with an inscription which reads »Beit Olam« (House of Eternity), Mažosios Lietuvos Istorijos Muziejus
Klaipėda, undated, The no longer existent mortuary on the Jewish cemetery, with an inscription which reads »Beit Olam« (House of Eternity), Mažosios Lietuvos Istorijos Muziejus

Image: Klaipėda, 2001, Entrance to the former Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda, 2001, Entrance to the former Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
A memorial wall and a park complex on the old Jewish cemetery in Klaipėda honour the expelled, missing and murdered Jews of the German-Jewish community of Memel and commemorate the annihilation of Jewish communities in Lithuania under National Socialism; they also recall the destruction of graves and buildings by the Soviets after the end of the war.
One of the photographic icons of the Holocaust was taken in Memel: It depicts print shop owner Aron Puhn with his wife Ella and their daughters Civa and Aviva fleeing from Memel, probably on March 23, 1939. In the background are grinning SA paramilitaries. The Puhn familiy escaped to the Lithuanian city of Šiauliai and later perished there.
Image: Memel, 1939, Print shop owner Aron Puhn and family flee from Memel, b p k
Memel, 1939, Print shop owner Aron Puhn and family flee from Memel, b p k

Image: Klaipėda, 1934, Jewish engineer Alfred Wittenberg (1877 Memel – 1940 Sachsenhausen concentration camp) with family in front of the city's silhouette, Ostpreußisches Landesmuseum Lüneburg
Klaipėda, 1934, Jewish engineer Alfred Wittenberg (1877 Memel – 1940 Sachsenhausen concentration camp) with family in front of the city's silhouette, Ostpreußisches Landesmuseum Lüneburg
Klaipėda is today the third-largest city in Lithuania. In May 1989, still under Soviet rule, a small Jewish cultural association was founded on the initiative of Jakob Rikler. When Lithuania regained its independence, the old German-Jewish cemetery came under the care of this association. The area was henceforth remodelled as a park. The association has set up its community centre in the former administrative building of the jamming station - on the site where the mortuary once stood - which it uses for prayer and other religious ceremonies. Commemorative ceremonies are held annually.
The memorial wall, which was erected in the 1990s, consists of flush-mounted German gravestones on which the inscriptions can still be read. The base of the jamming station mast with embedded grave slabs has also been preserved. On the premises, an avenue of trees has been planted for Lithuanian Righteous Among Nations who saved Jews during the Holocaust. Affixed at the entrance to the fenced-in complex is a memorial plaque with the following inscription in Lithuanian, Hebrew and English: »Located on these premises until 1939 was a Jewish cemetery.«
Image: Klaipėda, 2009, The Jewish community centre. It is located on the same site on the cemetery on which the mortuary once stood, Peter Bork
Klaipėda, 2009, The Jewish community centre. It is located on the same site on the cemetery on which the mortuary once stood, Peter Bork

Image: Klaipėda, 2001, Jakob Rikler, founder of the Jewish community in 1989 and initiator of the revitalistion of the community premises standing at the memorial wall, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda, 2001, Jakob Rikler, founder of the Jewish community in 1989 and initiator of the revitalistion of the community premises standing at the memorial wall, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Klaipėda, 2011, Entrance gate of the cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda, 2011, Entrance gate of the cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Klaipėda, 2011, Memorial wall with gravestones, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda, 2011, Memorial wall with gravestones, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Klaipėda, 2011, Gravestone on the memorial wall, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda, 2011, Gravestone on the memorial wall, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Klaipėda, 2011, Trees planted in honour of Lithuanian »Righteous Among Nations«, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda, 2011, Trees planted in honour of Lithuanian »Righteous Among Nations«, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Klaipėda, 2011, Base of a jamming station mast, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda, 2011, Base of a jamming station mast, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Klaipėda, 2011, View of the cemetery's premises, Stiftung Denkmal
Klaipėda, 2011, View of the cemetery's premises, Stiftung Denkmal
Name
Klaipėdos Senosios žydų kapinės
Address
Žiedų skersgatvis 3
91227 Klaipėda
Phone
+37 (0)46 493 758
Fax
+37 (0)46 493 758
E-Mail
lavana@takas.lt
Open
The cemetery is accessible at all times.