Vandalism: Thieves dug up graves within the past several years looking for "the gold" they believed to be buried in graves. [February 2009]
[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [November 2017]
BUDYNE NAD OHRI: US Commission No. CZCE000320
Alternate German name: Budin. Budyne nad Ohri is located in Bohemia, Litomerice at 50º24 14º09, 9 km WSW of Rounice nad Labem and 28 km SSE of Usti nad Labem. Cemetery: 1 km SSE of Square, cadastre of Vrbka (German: Wirbka). Present town population is 1,000-5,000 with than 10 Jews.
- Town: Mestsky Urad, 411 18 Budyne nad Ohri.
- Regional: Jewish congregation: ZNO, Moskevska 26, 400 01 Usti nad Labem; tel. 047/22710 and Okresni Urad, Referat Kultury, Na valech 10, 412 01 Litomerice; tel. 0416/5721 or 3371.
- Interested: Mestske Muzeum, zamek, 418 18 Budyne nad Ohri; and Statni Zidovske Muzeum, Jacymova 3, 110 01 Praha 1; tel. 02/2310634 and Vlastivedne Muzeum, Mirove namesti 1 412 01 Litomerice; tel. 0416/2019 and regional historian Engineer Otkar Specinger, Horymirova 943, 278 01 Kralupy nad Vltavou.
- Key holder: Vratislav Chroust, Mirove namesti 70, 411 18 Budyne nad Ohri; tel. 0411/95369.
- Other sources: Antonie Zitkova, Budyne nad Ohri 78, 411 18 Budyne nad Ohri.
Earliest known Jewish community was a prayerhouse recorded in 1632. 1930 Jewish population was 39. Effecting Jewish community were a plague in Jewish quarter in 1715; Peak Jewish population in mid-19th century (238 people in 1849); later moving to larger towns, independent congregation disbanded between 1922 and 1938. The Jewish cemetery originated in 1798 as the third Jewish cemetery with last known probably Conservative Jewish burial was probably in 1938. A sign or plaque in Hebrew marks the probably unlandmarked isolated flat rural (agricultural) site with sign: "from dust into dust". Reached by crossing private property, the original field path is completely hidden. Rurning directly off a public road is cornfield, open to all.
The cemetery is surrounded by a hedge or row of trees or bushes and in one corner, a slightly damaged continuous masonry wall with a locking gate. The pre- and post-WWII size of cemetery is 0.3538 ha s or 0.3678 ha. 100-500 stones date from 1798. Several older tombstones were transfered from an older cemetery to the 20th century one. The granite, limestone and sandstone flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, flat stones with carved relief decoration or multi-stone monuments (unreadable tablets) have Hebrew, German and Czech inscriptions. Some have metal fences around graves. The cemetery contains no known mass graves. Within the limits of the site are a pre-burial house with a tahara, a catafalque and other distinctive features granite tablet with about 40 names in Hebrew and the year 1905. Usti nad Labem Jewish community or the municipality owns used for a Jewish cemetery and agriculture. About one-third of the original cemetery is private arable field and a fruit orchard. There is an overgrown path with destroyed benches in the middle of the area that leads to a forest in the back with quite well conserved gravestones. Adjacent properties are agricultural. Rarely, private visitors and local residents stop. Vandalism occurred during World War II, occasionally 1945-1991. Local/municipal authorities did restoration in 1987. Serious threat: uncontrolled access. Moderate threat: pollution. Slight threat: weather erosion, existing and proposed nearby development.
Ladislav Mertl, mgr of geography, Kubanske namesti 1322/17, Praha 10 Vrsovice; tel. 02/743213 and Jan Marek, Na hranici 208, 405 05 Decin 9 for message tel. and fax: 0412/23662 or 28090 completed survey on 07-02-92. The following documentation was used: J. Herman: Jewish Cemeteries in Bohemia & Moravia (1980); Die Juden und Judengemeinden Bohemens (1934); article of Jaroslav Halbhuber in "Vlastivedny sbornik Podripska", 1934-35); census 1638, 1849, 1930, 1991; cadastre of 1843, 1857, 1872. Other documentation was inaccessible. The site was not visited.