Subject: Warsaw Cemetery Data added to Jewish Records Indexing-Poland
database
Last week, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland added to our searchable
database information on an additional 7,400 burials from the Warsaw
Jewish Cemetery.
(This information is from the file also known as Warsaw Cemetery
Database "C").
The historic Warsaw Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street has been in
continuous use since late in the 18th century and contains an estimated
250,000 individual graves as well as mass graves of thousands of
residents
of the Warsaw Ghetto. While most of the gravestones have survived, the
cemetery burial records were destroyed by Nazi forces during the WW II
occupation of Warsaw.
Starting in October 2003, Przemyslaw Isroel Szpilman, the new Cemetery
Manager, commenced an aggressive project with a goal of documenting all
the gravestones and their locations in the shortest possible time.
Using
a digital camera provided by JRI-Poland, work has proceeded at a brisk
pace and with the recent update to the JRI-Poland database we now have
more than 41,000 burials listed. Information on this database and how
to obtain photographs of tombstones can be found at the following link
http://www.jri-poland.org/cemetery/warsaw_beisolam.htm
The Warsaw Cemetery also has a new website with a surname searchable
database that is complementary to the JRI-Poland database. The search
results sometimes include the photograph of the tombstone.
The url for their new website is http://www.cemetery.jewish.org.pl/
Besides the data currently being compiled by Przemyslaw Isroel
Szpilman,
JRI-Poland's database has two additional Warszawa Cemetery data sets.
1) Warsaw Cemetery Database-"A" contains data compiled by the former
Warsaw Cemetery Director, Boleslaw Szenicer.
2) Warsaw Cemetery Database-"B" contains 3832 indices from an unusual
source. In the late 1960s, the City of Warsaw drew up plans to extend
Anielewicza Street (formerly Gesia Street) to connect with Mlynarska
Street
through the southern section of the cemetery. Gravesites in sections
1, 2, 3, 3a, 4b, 91, 92, 97, 99 and 99a were to have been removed, and
in preparation the stones were photographed, and inscriptions were
deciphered and recorded. This work was carried out by Warsaw University
students. However after strong opposition to the street extension the
plans were cancelled. Ultimately, the photos and documentation were
turned over to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
Please note there are overlaps between the three data sets. Data set C
(Mr.Szpilman's data) is the only active database that is continually
being updated.
Hadassah Lipsius
Jewish Records Indexing-Poland
Associate Director