The Silesian locality of Bielsko was chartered before 1312 by Duke of Cieszyn Mieszko I of the Piast dynasty. Biała, meanwhile, formed part of Lesser Poland and was only granted town rights four centuries later by King of Poland Augustus II the Strong (1723). Despite the rapid rate of Polonisation after World War I, both towns were dominated by Germans, mostly Lutherans, until the first half of the 20th century. Jewish settlers came to Bielsko in the mid-17th century, when the town was getting back on its feet after the destruction of the Thirty Years’ War. They reached the newly founded town of Biała several decades later and soon started to constitute a fifth of the total population. In 1765, Jews were expelled from Biała (under the de non tolerandis Judaeis privilege) and only returned in the early 19th century, when the region was controlled by Austria. Despite those perturbations, Jewish merchants gained a strong economic position as traders in the products of the local textile industry. Thanks to the reforms of Joseph II implemented in the late 18th century, many Jews of Bielsko were quickly becoming assimilated into the German culture and language. At the end of the 19th century, the town had 2,500 Jewish residents, making up 15% of the entire population. They owned over one third of the town’s factories and were the local financial elite.

The turbulent years of the Spring of Nations brought the abolition of the remaining restrictions of Jewish settlement in both cities (1848–1849). This made a particularly noticeable change in Biała, where the newcomers soon became the dominant force in many branches of trade and craftmanship. Until 1865, the Jews of Bielsko were subordinate to the religious community in Cieszyn. The Jewish population of Biała belonged to the community in Oświęcim until 1870. In Bielsko, the greatest influence was enjoyed by the supporters of assimilation, whereas Biała was largely dominated by Orthodox Jews. The end of the century saw a rise in the popularity of Zionist and socialist ideas among the local Jews, forced to struggle against the intensifying anti-Semitic sentiments.

Despite mass emigration to Germany and Austria after 1918, the Jews of Bielsko and Biała retained their strong economic and social position in reborn Poland. Bielsko in particular remained a strong centre of Jewish political, cultural, educational, and sporting life. In 1921, Jews constituted one fifth of the population of Bielsko and made up a similar percentage in Biała (19% in both towns at the end of the 1920s).

In 1939, at the beginning of the German occupation, 6,700 Jews (12% of the total population) were registered in the two towns, which were incorporated into the Reich. A ghetto for Jews from both Biała and Bielsko was established in the former locality; it operated in the years 1941–1942. Most of its prisoners were deported to the Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in June 1942. After the war, a group of several thousand surviving Jews returned to the newly merged city of Bielsko-Biała (it had 3,400 Jewish residents in 1951), which resulted in the reactivation of the community and religious and social and cultural organisations. Most local Jews left Poland after the events of March 1968. Nowadays, Bielsko-Biała is home to one of the nine Jewish religious communities still operating in Poland.

Description

The Jewish cemetery in Biała, located at today’s Wyzwolenia Street, was established in 1849. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the community of Biała leased the land from the owners of the estate (members of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty). After purchasing the plot, the community expanded the cemetery with adjacent plots of land (bought in 1929), as the original area had already been filled with graves. Burials were held at the site until 1942. After the war, the cemetery was taken over by the State Treasury and completely liquidated in the years 1966–1967, with some of the remains and tombstones moved to the Jewish cemetery in Bielsko. In 1996, a monument was erected to commemorate the cemetery.

Description copyright owner: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews