The Rossauer Cemetery in the city's ninth district is the oldest cemetery in Vienna, dating back to the 16th century. All of the cemetery's 700 gravestones were removed and hidden in a ditch in the Central Cemetery before the start of World War II. They were rediscovered only in the early 1980s and the headstones returned to their original locations.
The second oldest Jewish cemetery, located in Währing, was for the most part destroyed by the Nazis. Only a small badly preserved section of it still exists.
Döbling’s cemetery, established in 1885, reflects the liberal attitudes of the age: the Jewish section, not marked off from the rest of the cemetery, is the final resting place of many leading Jewish personalities.
The largest Jewish cemetery is situated within the Central Cemetery in two locations; at the first entrance gate, where the old Jewish Cemetery is located; and at the fourth entrance gate, the site of the new cemetery with a ceremonial hall. The old part, in particular, contains the tombs of many prominent Viennese Jews, such as Arthur Schnitzler, and members of the Viennese branch of the Rothschild family. The Nazis destroyed the ceremonial halls, designed by the architect Wilhelm Stiassny, around 1870, as well as most of the ornate gravestones, in 1938.