KAZANLAK JEWISH CEMETERY

A part of Kazanlak's Jewish cemetery survives but most of it was demolished to make room for the Kazanlak bypass. About a dozen graves remain, most in an appalling condition. At the entrance of the now unfenced and unguarded cemetery stands a lonely Christian effigy of a weeping woman. The inscription on it has been obliterated by the elements, but according to local hearsay the woman buried here was excommunicated by the Orthodox Church. The reasons for this have been lost through the years, but the poor lady was banned from the Christian section of the cemetery and, instead, her body was laid to rest with the Jews. 

Kazanlak's Jewish cemetery also used to be the last resting place of 22 Bulgarians sentenced to death by the Communist-dominated People's Court in 1945. They were shot dead with a single shot in the back of their heads, KGB style, and then buried in a common grave on the outskirts of the Jewish cemetery. That grave was rediscovered as late as 1992. The bones were exhumed and reburied in the Christian section in 1994.