Jewish Cemetery

The only reminder of the Jewish community in Opava is the Jewish cemetery in the compound of the Town Cemetery in Otická Street. One of the incentives to build a new Jewish cemetery in 1890 was the insufficient capacity of the cemetery between the streets Na Rybníčku and Veleslavínova, which was established in 1854. The remains buried there were not relocated to the new cemetery, and the Jewish cemetery remained there until World War II, when it was completely destroyed by the Nazis. The only remaining part is a fragment of the cemetery wall. Before the old cemetery was built, the Jews buried their dead by the house called Nový svět (New World) near the streets Alšova and Olomoucká. They were made to move the cemetery four years later due to plans to build riding barracks in the area. These plans were never realized and the plot was later used to build the train station Opava západ. The oldest Jewish cemetery in town was until the beginning of the 16th century located outside Hradecká Gate between today’s streets Skřivánčí and Rooseveltova.

The town cemetery comprises three parts – the main Catholic section in the middle, Evangelic section on the left, and the Jewish section on the right outside the main gate. The 120 x 100 metres rectangular area is is fenced off. Apart from the main wrought-iron double gate there are sveral more entrances to the Jewish cemetery.  There is a one-storey rectangular funeral parlour with a semi-circular ending. The Neo-Empire building from 1893 was built for the Jewish community only, but until 2007 it was used by all the confessions of faith. There are around 600 graves in the area, which is randomly planted with trees. The rear part of the cemetery reserved for future generations remains empty. The gravestones, made mostly of black granite, are covered with Hebrew-German and Hebrew-Czech inscriptions. Many are also covered in ivy, a plant characteristic of Jewish cemeteries.

Among outstanding persons buried in the cemetery are the businessmen Max Breda and Moritz Weinstein, rabbi Abraham Blüh, lawyers Moritz Ernst and Alois Eisler, factory owners Alois Lichwitz, Eduard Abeles, or Ferdinand Quittner. A complete list of all the graves was compiled in 1996 and it is kept in the seat the Jewish Community in Ostrava. In the cemetery there is also a memorial of the Jewish soldiers who were killed in World War I. In the course of World War II the Nazis closed the cemetery, and they destroyed or removed the most valuable gravestones. After the war a memorial of twenty-five victims of deatch march who died near Hněvošice and Arnošt’s yard in January 1945 was erected. Inscriptions commemorating the Jews who died in concentration and extermination camps are also installed in the cemetery, which was reconstructed after the war. The last burial in the cemetery took place in 1983.