Bagnowka Jewish Cemetery Burial Registry
“From Abrasz to Zute”
Bagnowka Burial Registry 2023-24 with new records has just been uploaded to the Jewish Online Worldwide Burial Registry JOWBR, thanks to the efforts of BCRF volunteer, Ken-Asher Arbit, and JOWBR’s volunteer, Nolan Altman. Twice yearly, Bagnowka records will continue to be added to the JOWBR database until restoration on Bagnowka is complete.
A list of new records from Summercamp 2023 is posted here and the 2022 Burial Registry. Click on Download button or text to the left of button to read online.
In the main database, surnames, in alphabetical order from Abrasz to Zute, are listed first, followed by partial surname records and records without a surname. The image number begins with the section in which each tombstone is located, e.g. 20743 – Section 20, photo 743; O9327 – Section 9, photo 327. NA indicates a photo was no longer available, in most cases, this photo was once housed on the bagnowka.pl database but no longer is linked to the vital details. To request these photos, please email bagnowkaphotos@gmail.com When the updated database is fully uploaded to JOWBR, photos will be available with vital details.
Bagnowka New Records August 2023
Bagnowka Database July 2023
An earlier version of this document was initially prepared by Dr. Heidi M. Szpek beginning in 2007 not as a registry per se but rather as a means to collate inscriptional data on the tombstones related to her research on Jewish epitaphs. That data was shared with a variety of organizations, including JOWBR and Jewishgen.org.
This document preserves the vital data currently extant on Bagnowka Jewish Cemetery in Bialystok, Poland, the last extant Jewish cemetery in Bialystok, present-day Poland. It functioned from about December 1890 until 1969. Current extant records date from 1890-1952. (The official opening of the cemetery was in December 1891, however, a tombstone dated to 1890 was discovered in 2023.) This registry is a work-in-progress. As restoration efforts continue new data will be entered as stones are uncovered and reset. This new information will be presented here and in the JOWBR database. Previous data is also rechecked to eventually provide a document that will not only record vital details of those buried here but also the specific section, row and plot in which a tombstone is located.
While the current document was prepared and will be updated by Dr. Szpek, translator, historian, Vice-Chair and board member for the Bagnowka Jewish Cemetery Restoration Project, credit for image captures belong to a variety of individuals and organizations. From 2006-10, Dr. Tomasz Wisniewski photographed a large portion of the images from which data was collected, with inscriptions translated by Dr. Szpek (2006-09) and Sara Mages (2010). From 2007 to the present, additional images were captured by Frank J. Idzikowski and Heidi M. Szpek. From about 2012 to the present Aktion Suchnezeichen Friedendienste, coordinated Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej Polska-Izrael Bialymstoku, engaged in restoration on Bagnowka, assisted by Dr. Andreas Kahrs (Berlin) and Dr. Szpek, thus adding to the record. Since 2016, the Bialystok Cemetery Restoration Project has engaged a new strategy, using mechanized equipment, to lift and reset stones, enabling restoration and documentation to proceed at an incredible pace and enabling the creation and development of this Burial Registry.
The current registry from the 2023 Summercamp has approximately 2800 surnames with related data (given name, father’s name, most often date of death); an additional 700 entries without surnames but recording given name, father’s name and related data, and new records totally nearly 300. Thus, this database is nearing 4000 records with an untapped potential of 2000 in areas not yet restored on Bagnowka.
Hebrew is the predominate language of these inscriptions but the vernaculars of Yiddish, Russian, German/Old Prussian and Polish are also extant. Yet the language preserved in Hebrew characters is a challenge to discern, given the changing regimes in Bialystok. JewishGen.org offers a concise but most helpful discussion of the challenge of spelling Jewish surnames and given names. The names recorded in this document are an attempt to transcribe the Hebrew as clearly as possible while respecting certain known or common transcriptions.
New records are added to the database in the Fall following each restoration Summercamp. Queries and photo requests can be directed to bagnowkaphotos@gmail.com
