Baron Hirsch Cemetery

Baron Hirsch Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery on Staten Island, New York.

In January, 1960, the cemetery drew national attention when 87 headstones were found with yellow paint used to write “Fuhrer,” and the German words for death and fatherland on gravestones bearing such Jewish symbols as the star of David. The incident and others led President Dwight D. Eisenhower to declare that freedom and decency could be destroyed everywhere if Americans ignored the "virus of bigotry” or permitted it “to spread one inch.” [ President Scores ‘Virus of Bigotry,” Warns it must be stemmed as peril to freedom,” page 1, column 1, New York Times, January 13, 1960]

The cemetery is composed of numerous sections belonging to specific synagogues, Jewish associations, and, most commonly, landsmanshaftn. Each of these is entered, via a gate or pair of stone columns. Many of the landsmanshaftn have dedicated Holocaust monumnets to the victims of the Nazis in their ancestral town, some examples [ [http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/hm-wodzislaw-bh.htm hm/wodzislaw/bh ] ] [ [http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/hm-gvardeyskoye-bh.htm hm/gvardeyskoye/bh ] ] [ [http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/hm-nadvirna-bh.htm hm/nadvirna/bh ] ] [ [http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/hm-hlusk-bh.htm hm/hlusk/bh ] ]

Notable burials

* Joseph Papp [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFDA1E3FF931A35752C1A967958260 Joseph Papp Is Remembered in Words and Song - New York Times ] ]
* Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr. and other members of the Newhouse publishing family. [www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18554]

Website

* www.baronhirschcemetery.org/

References