The history of the local Jewish community, similarly to those from other Masurian towns, dates back to the beginning of the 19th century and is connected to the influx of Jewish migrants from the Prussian Partition. However, first records of the presence of Jewish merchants in the town had been noted much earlier. As early as 1670, the Prussian states complained about the trading activities of Jews, claiming that they were bringing considerable losses to the townsmen of Gołdap. Jewish merchants were arriving to the area illegally, defying the 1663 decree of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm, known as the Great Elector, under which all Jews had been ordered to leave Prussia.

The end of the Napoleonic era brought a period of 100 years of peace to the region. At the time, a small but energetic group of Jewish families settled in Gołdap. They were able to do so thanks to the Tolerance Edict issued by King of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm III. At the end of the 19th century, which marked the peak of its development, the community had almost 100 members (a little over 1% of the total population of the town). It was organised into an independent synagogue community, and owned a synagogue, two cemeteries, a ritual slaughterhouse, and a school (all founded by 1823). Most members of the community made a living from trade. The first half of the 20th century saw a gradual outflow of Jews from East Prussia, sharply accelerated by the Nazi rise to power in Germany.

Just before the beginning of Nazi rule, the synagogue community of Gołdap had 48 members (0.5% of the total population) and united Jews from the entire Gołdap District (its northern areas now form part of the Kaliningrad Region in Russia). After the synagogue in Gołdap was set on fire during the Kristallnacht and subsequently demolished, most of the 20 Jews still living in the town decided to migrate. After the outbreak of the war, the few who remained were deported to ghettos in the occupied territories and to extermination camps. A total of ca. 20 people from Gołdap perished during the Holocaust. In 2021, the site of the destroyed synagogue was commemorated with a stone placed at the junction of today’s Armii Krajowej and Szkolna streets.

The Description

The new Jewish cemetery in Gołdap was most probably established in the second decade of the 20th century, after the old necropolis had filled up. It covered an area of 0.1 ha and was located on the edge of a small hill to the north of the old cemetery, between Darkiejmska Street and the railway track, adjacent to the new Evangelical cemetery from the west. In the interwar period, the new cemetery was surrounded with a massive wall built of concrete blocks.

The necropolis was devastated during World War II and continued to fall into decline after 1945. All matzevot were taken away and an artillery trench was dug in the southern corner of the cemetery (most probably at the very end of the war). Only several tombstones and pediments of ca. 20 matzevot have survived to the present day. There are also some preserved remnants of the cemetery wall (foundations, posts, and individual concrete blocks, as well as likely remains of the finials of gate posts). The thicket surrounding and overgrowing the necropolis has been cut, thanks to which its outline can now be distinguished from its surroundings.

Description copyright owner: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews