The old Jewish cemetery in Ústí nad Labem served its purpose until 1893, when the Ústí Jewish community acquired a separate section at the Central Cemetery on Ovčí vrch. The original cemetery has been covered up since 1924. According to Jewish rules, the graves were left in place, tombstones were placed on the grave sites, and a park was then created by filling in the soil. In Jewish tradition, both graves and tombstones belong to the dead and the cemetery cannot be abolished, it remains forever. For this reason, people from kohen (priestly) families, who are forbidden to enter the land of the dead, should not pass through this part of the park.
The old Jewish cemetery in a photograph from the early 1920s, published in Hugo Gold's documentary book dedicated to the history of the Jewish presence in Bohemia and Moravia. All the gentlemen have their heads covered, as befits a Jewish cemetery.
How is the existence of the cemetery commemorated at the site today?