The old cemetery served the Jewish community of Breslau from 1856 until 1942, when during WWII, the Nazis used it as a fortress. After the war, the cemetery was abandoned and untreated until the preservation began in the 1970s. The cemetery opened in 1991 as a museum.

Many famous Jews are buried here: Ferdinand Lassalle – the founder of the German Social-Democratic party; the Historian Heinrich Graetz who wrote the first complete history of the Jewish people; Clara Immerwahl – the wife of Fritz Haber, who committed suicide in protest over her husband's actions in developing chemical weapons for the German army in the first world war. She was also the first female Ph.D. of the University of Breslau; and many more. You can walk between the tombstones, which many are broken or hidden behind vines, and explore the unique shapes and figures of the Jewish gravestones.

A cashier, toilets, a giant map of the cemetery, and the most known graves are located at the entrance. In addition, ancient tombstones displayed next to the cemetery gate testify to the antiquity of the city's Jewish community.