נייטרא

נייטרא — בית החיים

Nitra — the Jewish cemetery

Jewish cemetery, Hviezdoslavova trieda, on the hill by the Klokočina district, Nitra, Nitra Region, Slovakia

• THE NITRER ROV IS NOT BURIED HERE. Reb Shmuel Dovid Ungar, rosh yeshiva of Nitra, was niftar in hiding in February 1945; after the war his son brought him to Piešťany, his birthplace, and buried him next to his father. Piešťany is about seventy kilometres west and is a separate journey.
• The cemetery itself is on the hill by the Klokočina district, off Hviezdoslavova trieda. There is no sign on the road, but the gate carries Jewish symbols.
• IT IS WALLED AND THE GATE LOCKS, and the sexton holds the key — the survey gives him as Viliam Glück, at an address in Hlohovec rather than in Nitra itself, so arrange the visit before travelling instead of turning up at the wall.
• It is one of the best-kept Jewish cemeteries in Slovakia — around five thousand graves, most of the stones still standing where they were set, and restoration work has been done on them. There is an ohel on the ground, a chapel, and the sexton's house.
• The ground is divided into an Orthodox part and a Neolog part, with a separate section for women who were niftar in childbirth. Knowing which part you want halves the walking.
• SURVEYED COORDINATES. The map point on this listing is the cemetery itself, measured on the ground by the ESJF survey — not a town centre. Where a kever is inside an ohel it will still need finding once you are through the gate, but the gate is now something you can navigate to.