Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw: A Visitor’s Guide

The Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street, in Warsaw’s Wola district, was founded in 1806 on a small plot outside the city limits. Today it covers 33.4 hectares, on which - according to the Jewish Community of Warsaw, its owner - more than 200,000 people are buried: spiritual leaders, political activists, creators of Jewish culture, figures of Polish science and public life, thousands of nameless ghetto victims and generations of Warsaw Jews.

An active cemetery

This is the only Jewish cemetery in Warsaw where burials still take place, the community notes. It is also a listed historic monument, entered in the register in 1973, and draws tens of thousands of visitors from around the world each year. A database built from the cemetery’s gravestones is maintained by the community.

Visiting rules

Admission costs 20 zł. Men entering the cemetery must cover their heads, and the cemetery is closed on Polish and Jewish holidays - check the calendar before visiting around 1 November (All Saints’ Day) or the autumn Jewish holidays. Visitors should remember this is an active burial ground, not only a tourist attraction.

Context

The cemetery lies a short walk from the former Northern District, the heart of pre-war Jewish Warsaw, and pairs naturally with the Nożyk Synagogue on Twarda Street - the seat of the Jewish Community of Warsaw (Twarda 6) - and the POLIN Museum nearby.