The Jewish cemetery of Wroclaw

Having decided not to visit the Jewish cemetery in Prague, I let myself be tempted by the one in Wroclaw.

After a pleasant morning walking around the Old Town, I took the tram (almost helped by my tramway maps, but not quite), and headed South.

The entrance is badly indicated, but after going along the wrong walls twice, and asking people, I discovered that the entrance was right where I arrived first and thought it should be.

The cemetery has had a rough history: quite old, although most tomds date from the 19th and 20th centuries, it was however used by the German in WWII as a fortress, which resulted in numerous destruction and impact craters in the tombstones.

But afterwards, nature was left to run its course, and the cemetery is completely overgrown. Ivy, ferns, holly and other vegetation are left to grow however they will, and only the path are (almost) clear of greenery. The result is astounding.

You have to imagine broken, damaged, crater-riddled stones, mausoleums, columns, overgrown by ivy, moss, with trees growing in between... it is immensely peaceful. It is a secret garden where the past stands still, where violence has left its mark and then has been subjugued by Nature.

It is a place that says: I have seen war, but it is not death that prevailed, it is life. Man comes and goes, lives and dies, and the Earth goes on.

I have loved each broken stone, each moss, each leaf, and my only regret was... the lack of bench to sit and be still.