Weißensee Jewish Cemetery

People say that every place has its own history, but what about when the respective place has more than one hundred thousand stories that are known, unknown, told and still waiting to be told? Such is the case at the Weißensee Jewish Cemetery, the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe.

With more than 115,000 gravestones spread over 40 hectares, the area looks like an enchanted fairytale forest. All of these gravestones tell the stories of people who have been buried here over the past 300 years. As stories that are set in stone, they tell of Berliners whose place in the city’s history should not be forgotten. A few examples include the painter Lesser Ury (deceased 1931), the publisher Samuel Fischer and Hermann Tietz, the Herite founder.

Directly behind the entrance and the magnificent wrought iron gate, you will find a memorial that is dedicated to the six million victims of the Holocaust. Stones that bear the names of the concentration camps surround a central memorial stone, while the graves of Jewish resistance fighters lie close by. You certainly notice that the Weißensee Jewish Cemetery is a very unique place in Berlin. People often say that quiet places are tough to come by in Berlin, but they actually usually just have to look around the corner to find one. The Jewish Cemetery is definitely one of these places, as it’s an ideal area to be surrounded by stillness, history and stories.