Slovakia - The Memorial of Chatam Sófer

The history of Bratislava Judaism is very long, but mentions of the old Jewish cemetery we can date from 1640 only. In this year the Pálffy family rented this ground to the Jewish religious community. When the Chevra kadish was formed, the ground came into possession of the community (1694), the oldest tombstone is connected with the year 1670. The cemetery served until 1847. Because of the small extent was twice covered over with soil@ that is in the year 1810 and 1825, so that the graves were piled in two, in some places even in three layers. The whole amount of the graves was about 6000. In the year 1845 Chevra kadiš bought e ground on the Karlovesk@ cesta in the vicinity of the cemetery of St. Nicolaus and here the new cemetery arose, which serves until now. In 1942 the construction of the tunnel under the castle hill began. The construction required the elevation of the road, so the 300-year old cemetery had to recede. During the WWII, with the spreading anti-Semitism it was a pure miracle that the then Jewish religious community succeeded in enforcing the government to rescue the part of the cemetery with the grave of Chatám Sófer and the graves of other important rabbis and the representatives of the Jewish religious community, that had been left on their place. Other graves were exhumed and put into the mass grave at the orthodox cemetery together with the tombstones. But the rabbinical Graves were rescued and they had been preserved without any damage.