Tag: cemetery

A final resting place, cemetery Crooswijk

Rotterdam Daily Photo: A final resting place, cemetery Crooswijk
Rotterdam Daily Photo: A final resting place, cemetery Crooswijk

A few days ago I took another small photo walk and I passed the Crooswijk cemetery located at the Kerkhoflaan. It is an old and very beautiful cemetery with an old chapel, lots of nature and certainly with the beautiful spring weather a nice place to come to contemplate.

A short history; In 1829 it was decided that burial in the church was no longer allowed. The Municipality of Rotterdam built the first municipal cemetery: Crooswijk cemetery. The Rotterdam city architect Pieter Adams designed the cemetery. The cemetery was inaugurated in July 1832. The cemetery is not yet ready, but due to a cholera epidemic, Rotterdam has a large number of people to bury. There is also a military plot dedicated on May 30, 1940. Here 115 Dutch soldiers are buried. In addition, a separate section has been set up for Islamic funerals. Here, dead can be buried within 36 hours.

Abandoned but not forgotten

Rotterdam Daily Photo: Abandoned but not forgotten
Rotterdam Daily Photo: Abandoned but not forgotten

This sunday morning I walked by this hidden spot. Its maybe difficult to find but its still there, sandwiched between the tall buildings, a Jewish cemetery that dates back to 1696! First used for the Portuguese commune and since 1710 used by the “Hoogduitse” commune, in 1811 consisting of approximately 2100 people.  People were buried there until 1820. There are about 200 gravestones, but the older graves are under the most recent ones.

At the start of WWII in 1940 some 13.000 Jews lived in Rotterdam. Nowadays there is not much left of this community. The foundation Boete en verzoening (penance and reconciliation?) takes care of maintenance of this historic place so that it is not forgotten.