BOLSZEWO: Pomerania

see Wejherowo. 54°37′27″N 18°10′31″E, a village in the administrative district of Gmina Wejherowo, Wejherowo County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland approximately 6 km(4 mi) NW of Wejherowo and 42 km (26 mi) NW of the Gdańsk. The village has a population of 7,064.The Jewish cemetery in Bolszewo, a village near Wejherowo, probably dates from the 18th century, but In 1827, these Jews bought an old cemetery property of 3,414 m2 in a forest located at the top of the hill called Żydowska Górka or Judenberg (the Jewish Hill) to the south of Bolszewo village on the old Wejherowo Lebork road. This purchase avoided legal wrangling with the municipality. The Jewish community from Bolszowo and Jews from Sopot and Gdynia were buried here. Severely damaged during the WWII, the cemetery was turned into a bridgehead. Today, only fragments of graves survived. The synagogue was built in 1866, but a cemetery already existed.  During World War I, several Russian soldier prisoners of Russian Jewish origin were buried here. The metal fence that was stolen now serves as a fence and balcony on one of the premises in Wejherowo. [May 2009]