I'm looking forward to seeing the Jewish Cemetery, but it's closed when I get there, so all I get to see are these gates.

Sign, upper left: "Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw. Founded in 1806. Opening hours..." (Translation courtesy of Piotr Spodnik.)

Sign, lower left: "Please do not enter the cemetery without covering your head." (Translation courtesy of Piotr Spodnik.)

More information is available at the website of the Gesia Foundation, an organization that helps to maintain the cemetery and other Jewish sites in Warsaw.

"The cemetery was established in 1806 beyond the limits of the city... After many extensions, it covers now approximately 82.5 acres and contains roughly 250,000 tombs and 250,000 burials. As one of the last functioning Jewish cemeteries in Poland, it is shielded from the outside by a brick wall.

"Many people wonder why the Germans did not destroy the cemetery during the war. It seems that in Warsaw they did not need stones for road-building, and thus the Warsaw cemetery survived – unlike other cemeteries in small towns."-- A Guide to Jewish Warsaw (©1996 Our Roots. All rights reserved.)