Jewish   Cemeteries   in   Budapest

 To follow this study on The Jewish Cemeteries in Budapest, I would give you a little geographical and historical  summary.

The river Danube ( Duna) runs through the middle of Budapest, a metropolis of 1.7 million inhabitants, dividing the old royal town Buda , Old Buda ( Ó-Buda) and the flat Pest plain.
The area was inhabited 50,000 years ago, but took on today's name just 130 years ago: until 1873, Óbuda, Buda and Pest were considered separate settlements.

ROMAN PERIOD
The earliest traces of Jewish communities in Hungary dates back to the 3th century.
This time the line of the river Duna (Fluvius Danubius or Ister) and the western part of the today county under the name Province Pannonia had been controlled by the Roman Empire. Beside of the Roman military contingent some Jewish military legion soldiers and food supply commercials had been appeared in Aquincum / today Óbuda.
 The earliest gravestone was designed for a roman family with the death boy.
   The stala was bought from an other Jewish family, engraving the family name Béneiamin and the    design of thee Menorah on it.
You can find these early Jewish stones (designed with Menorahs, other symbols, like lulag, etrog, sofar and a nice writing: Heisz Theosz... The only one God) in the historic collection of the Hungarian National Museum ( Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum) BP. VIII.Múzeum krt. 14/15 open from 10 a.m- to 6 p.m every day, except Mondays). The copy is exhibited in the Hungarian Jewish Museum ( Dohány str. Sinagogue II. floor). The stone was bought by a Hungarian noble family, gr. Szapáry in 1830/40 and added to their Alber-Irsa castle collection. The Jewish signs were discovered only in 1878.

HUNGARIAN FEUDAL KINGDOM
After an unexpected, devastating Mongolian attack in the middle of the 13th century, the first citizens of the formal royal seat town Esztergom, moved up the hill the western part of the river Duna. Later the Royal Court was established on the north part of the hill, and with this began the quite lengthy golden age of the new fortified city Castrum Budeaensi , of the town Buda.
We can detect the first signs of Jewish settlements in this area from the11th century.
Jews were granted rights to liberty and freedom of worship by Béla IV after The Tatar invan named in Latin language servus camerae from 1220.
The medieval Mint stood near Szt. György Square in The Buda Castle and The first Jewish quarter was formed here on the so called Platea Judeorum or Old Jewish Quarter.
The communitysion. They were renowned for being the treasurers and chamberlains of the royal administratio built up the first Jewish Cemetery outside the city walls, at the Ördögárok area, as Sepoltura Judeorum.  The earliest grave stone is dating back to 5038 ( 1278 ) with the name: R(av) Peszah b(en) r(av) Peter. It was brought to light in 1894 from the today Alagut utca and Pauler utca corner ( Buda, I. district).
The Jewish were several time expulsed out from Buda, in 1348, 1360. They could return beck in 1364, but their quarter was already occupied from other citizens, so they could get a new area in the North of the Castle Hill, near to the former Magna Curia Regis (Kammerhof), today the area of the Bécsi kapu tér ( Vienna Gate square). They started the new life with privileges of Jewish authorities, like index Judeorum titus Regui, court of justice and Praefectus.
Buda was overruled by the Ottoman Turks and the city Buda was turned into a Turkish town. From 1541 the Jewish could return to their town and under the name Jahudiler Mahalleszi the Jewish quarter started to return into the normal commercial and religious life. In the 16 th century more than 60 families used to live in a peaceful period with the free independent organisation of the Jewish court (kethüda in Turkish). The community had been used a New Buda Cemetery at the +Viziváros ( Watertown), today at the BP. I.  Hunfalvy and Batthány utca. The former Jewish cemetery could not be used, because of the mixed entombed Hungarian, Turkish and Jews died in the war of the Turkish occupation.
In the 1686 recaptured war, the Jewish and Ottoman enemies were killed or taken in hostage ( 274 Jewish person, paid and freed from the Prague Jewish community). This is registered in the Megillah Oven. The died Jewish bones were gathered and entombed in the BP. X. Kozma utca Jewish Cemetery at the Martyr Plot in 1968 on the Pest side.

At the former prefects house Mendel, we can find the Small Synagogue ( today Middle-aged Jewish Synagogue Museum, +Középkori Zsidó Zsinagóga Múzeum BP. I. Táncsics Mihály u. 26). On the left , inside the entrance there is a small lapidarium exhibition of the Jewish gravestones of the First and New Buda Cemeteries.
    Old gravestone at the entrance of  Középkori Zsinagóga Múzeum.
When Buda was recaptured from the Turks in 1686, the Jews were  expelled.

Ó-BUDA (Old Buda) near today's Árpád bridge ( Buda North ). By Jews called Ofen Jasan
For the forbidden to establish Jews in the royal free towns, at the countryside, like near to the Buda Royal city gates, the landlord noble Zichy family could settle down the good tax playing and working Jews, arriving mostly from the Czech Moravian country.
In the 18th century they helped to create a flourishing industrial city in Ancient Buda (Óbuda) and near today's Árpád bridge with famous dyeing workshops and a textile factory established by the reputed Goldberger family.
The late 18th century witnessed the birth of new Jewish communities in Pest and the then largest synagogue in the world was constructed between 1854 and 1859 on what is(Óbuda) and near today's Árpád bridge with famous dyeing workshops and a textile factory established by the reputed Goldberger family.
From the 18th centuries Old Buda become a Jewish centre under the name Ofen Jasan/ Alt Ovn. In 1822, the inhabitants of Old Buda totally 7356 persons, 3210 were of the Jewish community. Shops, small industrial and craftsman workshops characterized the today III: Lajos utca area. Famous dyeing workshops and a textile factory established by the reputed
Goldberger family ( III. Lajos u. 138). The Goldberger Textile Factory imported their products, blue painted textile in 50 other states and gave work for 450 people. Leo Goldberger, already member of the High Court in the Hungarian Parliament, died in the death camp in Mauthausen.

They had four cemeteries:

BP. III. Laktanya utca/ Kő utca area from 1831 till 1870. Today modern block flats are standing at the              place.
BP. II. Pálvölgyi ( Szépvölgyároki) cemetery: from 1820-1938. No sign of the former cemetery today.
Táborhegyi ( BP.III. Bécsi út-Labanc utca): till 1888. No sign of the former cemetery today
Külső Bécsi út ( BP. III. Bécsi út 369) , the today Jewish cemetery of Óbuda.

BUDA side of Budapest

ÓBUDA JEWISH CEMETERY

Address: BP. III. Külső Bécsi út 369.
Photos taken by The author on June 2002.

Established: in 1922 by the Óbuda Jewish community and opened from the 31 year old rabbi dr. Schreiber Ignac. He was unfortunately the first engraved Jew in this cemetery, because he was hit 3 days later by a car.

Other important graves:
     - Moses Münz rabbi, he was the community leader until 1831.

     - A  newly cleaned monument was erected for the 149 killed patients in The Maros utca  Jewish       Hospital. Nazi Hungarians killed all the people in beds and the doctors, nurses on 21 th January       1945.
   - Gravestone for the victims of the Hungarian Holocaust: the last operation of Adolf Eichmann to      collect Jewish people for the “Fussmarsch”, to march in the direction of Vienna for forced works. The cemetery is already used for the services today.

Pictures from the Óbuda Cemetery

                            Gravestone for the victims of Maros utca Jewish hospital

   Gravestone of rabbi Schreiber Ignác             Gravestone of rabbi  Münz Mózes

       Gravestone for the Torahs.                  Victims of the Óbuda Brick factory  

Csörsz utca Orthodox Cemetery

Address:: BP. XII. Csörsz utca 55
Photos taken by the author Illés András  on June 2002.

This cemetery is one of the oldest cemetery of Budapest, of the orthodox Jews in Buda.
It is hidden behind a high brick wall and you have to ask for the coming of the caretakers of the Orthodox community. The size of the cemetery is 100 x 10 m, we enter at the gate of a small out of use pre-burial house. The number of the gravestones are 1360 and a small central road separate the section of men and women.

Famous graves:
   - Reich Jaakov Koppel orthodox Buda chef rabbi of Buda, died in 1929.
   - Chaim David Szofer: a family member of the 18 th sanctuary rabbi of Pozsony.
   - Fraudiger Mózes: the founder of the Óbuda Textile Factory.
   - Mautner family grave
   - Deutsch family grave
   - Grave of the victims of the Maross utca Jewish Hospital murder in 1945.

Pictures from the Csörsz utca cemetery
  
                   

Farkasrét Jewish Cemetery

Address: XII. Érdi u. 9.
Size of cemetery: 2,8 hectares with 2500  gravestones.
Photos taken by the author Illés András  on June 2002.

The Jewish cemetery was established in 1885. The oldest known gravestone dates from 1897.
The second biggest cemetery, after the cemetery of Óbuda. At the entrance from the end-station of the trams, you will find a pre-burial house, helpful caretakers could show you the old register book and a map of the cemetery.
Noted persons:
   Goldberg Rafael rabbi, Geyer Artur, Heller Bernát, Kiss Arnold, Benoschofsky Imre and the former  rabbi of Buda.

                    
               Graves from the cemetery            Grave of the architect Vágó László  

                    
      Grave of the former rabbi of Buda            Gravestone of dr. Képes Gyula 
                                                                    first member of the North Pole Expedition in 1872-73.               

                                                
                                                        Preparation table

 Pest side

The history of the city of Pest was started later.
Some document had been found, where in 1406 a Jewish man, called Saul asked for the copy of the Jewish Lows, edited by the king Béla the IV.
Some Jewish houses stood already on the Pest side in 1504, but it was not possible to live with the catholics  inside the city walls. The first houses were built up outside in the former Lipótváros and Terézváros area.
The Jews travelled every day from Óbuda here, outside the walls had been the State Markets ( at the place of the Erzsébet tér). They could rented rooms, warehouses in the later built Orczy House, that become the cultural and social centre of the Jewish. Café houses, synagogues, 120 flats and many warehouses were built inside.
The Habsburg authorities issued in the name of the emperor Jozsef the II. the deregulation laws: Gentis Judaical regulatio, De Judaeis memorandum a, to cancel all the forbidden laws.
After some year of hesitation the local city counsel  permitted to settle down of the Jews from 1786.

The population ground up from 1787 ( 81,000 Jews) to 1840 up to 239,000 Jewish inhabitants. That was the golden period for emancipation and acceptation. For 1849, when the revolutionary government recognised the Emancipation Laws, from the whole country inhabitants 5% were of Jews, in PestBuda of 20%. The emperor Ferenc József issued the well awaited acceptation laws in 1867. For the beginning of the 20 th sanctuary there were 900,000 Jews in big size Hungary, 93% of them were inhabitants of the united tree towns born under the name Budapest.
The urban life helped for the forming by Jews an intellectual segment of the sociality: literature, music, literature, theatre and cinema, banking sector, large industrial companies and European commercial organisations.
The young Theodor Herzl was born here, for 6 th of September 1859 here was built the largest synagogue of the World, the Dohány utca ( Tobacco str.) Synagogue.
Hungary collapsed into ruins after the I. WW on beside of Austria and Germany. The country had lost 71% of her territory, 13 million of her inhabitants and also the half of the Jews.

In the same year, Hungary bought in the first anti-Jewish laws in Europe (numerous Clauses) and has actively sought revenge for its lost territories by aligning itself with the burgeoning nazi movement in Germany. 

The oldest Jewish cemetery on the Pest side was established in the 18th century.
The location had been somewhere in Kőbánya ( BP. X. district), at the so called area of Újhegy ( New mountain).
Later, about 200 years after, a new inside the city cemetery was opened at the catholic Váci út cemetery, today at the Vámház kőrút.

Salgótarjáni  út Jewish Cemetery

Address: BP. VIII. Salgótarjáni út
Photos taken by The author Illés András 0n June 2002.

The Salgótarjáni út Jewish cemetery was established in 1874 from a separate territory in the 55 hectares of The New Public Cemetery ( Új Köztemető) of Kerepesi Road formed in 1847.
The entrance was built from the Salgótarjáni út in a special architect form, like The entrance of a castle, designed by the famous architect of this period, Lajta Béla in 1908.
The entrance building includes the function rooms, the caretaker's flat as well.

The whole cemetery become  place for the elite, for The famous artists, for the gait family dynasties, for the banking and industrial leaders of the liberal and in the society incorporated neology leaders.
At the entrance going ahead we can find , like in a jungle , a superb wild vegetation.
The former pre-burial house, decorated with oriental-Mesopotamian style relief's, is abandoned and the roof is collapsed down for a long time.
This exotic and wild green jungle style park gives interesting atmosphere to the cemetery.
The last burials were in the years of 1950.

The important family graves: 

Baron Weiss Manfréd and family crypt
The important industrial owner in Csepel Steel Factory died in 1922. His activity gave a general speed up of the country's industry and during the I.WW. the steel and army factory gave employment to 30,000 workers. In 1880 he and his brother established the Hungarian tin box and bullet cartridge case production. The factory moved in 1892 to the Csepel Island and become one of the biggest army suppliers of the Monarchy.
Other family members rest in the family crypt: Wahl Albert railway company president, Weiss Alice to whom memory they established the Budakeszi Pulmonary Sanatorium. In 1944, after the German occupation, the owners were forced to sell the ownership of the steel industry to the Germans and the family members could live the country in the deal Jews airplane, organised by Rudolf  Kasztner. 

 -Ulmann Adolf
  President of the industry and monetary political leader Hungarian General Credit Bank. 

 - Goldberger textile factory owner family from Óbuda

The  Goldberger family established 1784 in Óbuda the most important textile industry. The company was so important, that also the Emperor Ferenc József gave a visit there and become later the textile supplier of the Monarchy. They had commercial partners and depot in 50 countries. For 1867 become noble and member of the high political elite. Leo Goldberger, the last member of the dynasty was transported in the death camp of Mauthausen and died of hunger in the last days of the II. WW.

Ehrenfeld family
           the nice crypt is worth to visit for the special mosaic decorations 

Sváb family crypt
       The grave is  decorated with interesting black granite  birds, masterwork of the architect Lajta        Béla. 

Bródy József and family crypt
     The black marble columns decorates the crypt. He was the president of the Pest Chevra Kadisa        corp.

Hatvany-Deutsch family crypt:
      The monumental grave is in Greek Pantheon style realisation. The family was an important patron       and collector of fine arts. He established the Hatvan flour milling industry and the private income       of the business was invested in acquire European value paintings. Following the promulgation of the      Anti Jewish Laws, all his collection was expropriated by the local authorities and kept under national      control. The paintings were transported in the famous golden train at the last moment of the war      out of the Russian army.

Aschner Lipót
        General director of the Egyesült Izzó Tungsram Incandescent Lamp Factory.

Friedmann Bernát
      lawyer and ex counsel for the defence for the blood- trial against the Jews, 1882 in Tiszaeszlar       village.

Graves of the Jewish victims in the period of the II. WW.
     Victims of the battle of liberation of Budapest and victims having suicided into the Danube river     during the nazi terror,
Victims of the last Budapest Ghetto in Klauzál tér.

Stone monument for 1500 victims, inaugurated on July 2002. 

Photos from the important graves

           Hatvany-Deutsch family crypt                                Crypt stone

                        
                              Blackbird motivs at The Sváb family crypt

 Csepel Baron Weiss Manfréd family crypt                       Old gravestone                                                                      

Rákoskeresztúr Kozma utcai Jewish Cemetery 

Address: BP. X. Kozma u. 6. Tel: 262-4687 
Photos taken by the author Illés András on July 2002.

The Jewish community received a large area from the city administration in 1868 from the territory of the Rákoskeresztúr Public Cemetery. The cemetery was planned by architect Freud Vilmos.
Between 1905 - 1910 a geat number of Jewish were exhumed and transported in this new cemetery by the Pest Chevra Kadisa.

The following brief description is that of the largest existing Jewish cemetery in Budapest, where more tan 300,000 Jews have been buried:  The entrance is decorated in white and forms part of a major building complex. The function rooms, central preparation halls, offices and ceremony halls are separated for men and women. The building was designed by the architect Freund Vilmos in 1891. During the past decades, this cemetery become also the central cemetery of the Jewish inhabitants of Budapest.

Important sights: 

-At the inside wall of the entrance building you can find a memorial  
  monument for the 10,000 Jewish Hungarian soldiers, died during WWI. 
-Military monument of the volunteer soldiers of the revolution of 1849 ( design by Lajta Béla). 
-Monument for the martyrs of the Hungarian Holocaust, realised by the famous Hungarian olympic champion and architect Hajós Alfréd ( he was the first Hungarian olympian to win a gold medal). 
-The large white walls and columns-pillars holds the names of all of the victims (some hand-written entries complete the list) and here are buried 2,000 victims of the Klauzál tér ghetto from the last months of WWII. 

                                        
                                         Pictures of the Holocaust Monument 
 
-Plot for the Martyrs:

Monument of Jewish forced labourers decorated with a big Torah 
( Inscription: “ This company of 196 workers, marching back from the battle of Volga river in Russia, were all murdered on 11th October 1944 in Kiskunhalas.)  

 -Monuments to the heroes of the resistance fighters: 

    5/c plot 3/23.  Here was buried Miss Szenes Hanna ( 1950-ben exhumed in 1950 and brought
to Israel as a national heroin). We can find here a 2 m high memorial column, remembering her. 

To the right, in the 1. and 2. plot:  

     Rózsavölgyi Gyula music editor
     Bársony Dóra opera singer 
    Szomory Dezső writer
    Salamon Béla theatre actor
    Goldziher Ignác Orientals researcher, philologist 

                                     
  Grave of the wonder rabbi Oppenheimer                      Visitor's signs on the grave       

                                   
      The gravestones of the rabbis                                       Main building

Other graves of famous Hungarian Jews: 

Komjádi Béla architect, key figure of the Hungarian water-polo

Hajós Alfréd architect, the firs Olympic gold medal winner for Hungary

Baumhorn Lipót architect, the most respected architect of the Hungarian Synagogues. In Budapest: Csáky and Páva str. synagogues, in countryside: Szegedi Nagyzsinagóga, Györgyös, Brassó, Esztergom, Kaposvár, Cegléd, Kecskemét, Szolnok, Eger, Liptószentmiklós, Temesvár, Fiume, Nagyszombat, Nyíregyháza, Losonc, Nagybecskerek, Újvidék, Nyitra, Újpest synagogues. 
(photo attached see below)

Lajta Béla (Leitersdorfer Béla) sculptor, famous designer of a lot of family crypts ( photo see below)

Rózsavölgyi Márk violinist and music composer, father of the Hungarian verbunkos folclore music. (photo see below)   

                        
Hajós Alfréd's grave, 1955⁺                       Grave of Komjádi Béla  1933⁺

Other well known Jews:

Róna József sculptor
Bródy Sándor playwright
Forrai György music composer
Selényi Pál research physicist
Wittmann Viktor aviation pioneer
Kellér Andor  writer and Kellér Dezső actor, 
Fehér Klára writer
Gózon Gyula actor ( statue by Varga Imre)
Szép Ernő writer
Hajós Alfréd architect ( central sport swimming pool on the Margaret Island)
Kishegyi Árpád opera singer (modern Menorah design)

Extremely important crypts:

Blockner family crypt
Brüll family's crypt ( outside with lions, inside with mosaics decoration)
Gerster Kálmán and  Sróbl Alajos graves ( MTK sport club's financial directors) 
Hay family's crypt  ( in secession style)
Schmidl mausoleum ( designed by Lajta Béla)  decorates with the Zsolnay ceramics and mosaics. Renovated, see on photo.
Goldberger Berthold's crypt in secession style 
          ( History of the family see at Óbuda textile factory)
Wellisch family crypt ( see photo)
Kornfeld Zsigmond bank-and stock exchange bank director's grave
Heidelberg family's grave ( nice wrought iron gate) 
Griesz family crypt (designes by Lajta Béla) lions figures, inside mosaic cupola ( see photo)
Redlich-Ohrenstein gravestone ( designed by Alpár Ignác, the same of the Parliament house)
Urbán family grave
Lichtenstein Samu grave (art deco)
Hüvös József grave ( Egyptian design elements)
Halmos graves( Egyptian stile columns)
Schwarcz grave ( designed by Lajta Béla)
Freund Béla and family's grave with monumental columns
Szabolcsi Miksáné grave ( Lajta Béla design)
Lukács József bankdirector's grave ( father of the famous Lukács György philosopher)    

                                          Old gravestones

                           
     Baumhorn Lipót architect's grave                        Rózsavölgyi Márk's grave       
 

                           
         Brüll Zsigmond grave                                   A Brüll crypt decoration      

                           
    The wonderful Schmidl crypt                        Inside decoration with mosaics                                                                                 
 

                           
         Wellisch family mauzoleon                              Inside mosaic decoration 

    
                           
            Redlich family crypt                      Mosaic decoration of the Gries family crypt
           

      The age of Holocaust   1944 – 1945.

                            
                                       Monument for the victims of WW II.