They dealt mainly with trade and crafts, as well as accommodation and catering services. In the second half of the 16th century, their number became so significant that the commune was granted the privilege to build an impressive synagogue. During this period, there was also a beth midrash, where the teacher was Jakub Nachmanowicz - a religious scholar, preacher, religious scholar, and also an outstanding doctor. In the 17th century, the Parliament of the Four Lands, Vaad Arba Aratzot, met many times in Bełżyce, which was the central institution of Jewish self-government, representing the interests of all communities located in the territory of the Republic of Poland.

The community suffered heavy losses due to the invasion of Cossacks, led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, in 1648, who devastated the synagogue and school. They also most likely carried out a pogrom against Jews. The community was reborn relatively quickly, but at the end of the 18th century, a fire destroyed the city's buildings, including the entire market square.

Nevertheless, it was at the end of the 18th century that the city's economic prosperity began. Jews then owned 19 stalls and inns with stables. A Jewish quarter existed in the area of the following streets: Żydowska (now 1000-lecia), Zatylna (now Jakuba Nachmana) and Południowa (now Bednarska).

In 1795, Bełżyce fell under the Austrian partition. From 1810 they belonged to the Duchy of Warsaw, and from 1816 to the Kingdom of Poland. Unfortunately, in 1822, another fire broke out, during which the synagogue, the town hall, most of the tenement houses at the market square, and numerous buildings on the adjacent streets, including Jewish inns, were destroyed. They were not rebuilt and in their place the owners only erected modest wooden houses. In 1869, as part of the repression following the January Uprising, Bełżyce lost its city rights, which they regained only in 1958.

Despite the change in status, from the beginning of the 19th century Bełżyce was a significant center of Hasidism. At the end of the 19th century, the famous rabbi Gedalia Samuel Jakobson was active in the town, and the Jewish community had four ritual butchers.

In the interwar period, Bełżyce was home to, among others, a great synagogue (fully rebuilt only in 1930), a beth midrash, 6 private prayer houses, 8 cheders, a mikvah, a ritual slaughterhouse and two cemeteries, including the older one which is no longer in use. In 1929, a Hebrew school was opened, belonging to the Tarbut Zionist school organisation. In 1921, 1,882 Jews lived here, and just before the Holocaust their number exceeded 2,000.

After the outbreak of World War II and the German invasion of Poland, Bełżyce found itself within the borders of the General Government. In 1940, the German occupation authorities established a ghetto, which was located at Południowa street (currently 1000-lecia street). The Jewish population from nearby towns (including Bychawa and Piotrowice) was resettled there, transports of Jews were brought from Szczecin, Kraków, and Lublin, as well several thousand of Jews from Saxony and Thuringia. In 1941, a Judenrat was established, and in 1942 the ghetto was permanently fenced. The highest number of prisoners in the ghetto was 4,854. The Jews, crammed into a small area, were decimated by typhus and terrible sanitary conditions.

In 1941, the Germans sent some of the Jews from Bełżyce to the labor camp in Poniatowa, and another group to Majdanek, where they took part in the construction of the German Nazi concentration camp. When the ghetto was liquidated in 1942, Jews were transported to the German Nazi extermination camp in Sobibór. The Germans shot elderly and infirm men in front of the synagogue, and many other people shot them during the march to the railway station in Niedrzwica. The remaining small number of ghetto prisoners were gathered in a forced labor camp located in houses around the completely destroyed synagogue. It employed mainly women who worked for the Wehrmacht in tailoring and shoemaking workshops.

In 1943, Jewish presence in Bełżyce was completely eradicated. The Germans and their Ukrainian collaborators murdered most of Jewish residents on the spot, and deported the rest to the forced labor camp in Kraśnik-Budzyń and the ghetto in Piaski. After the war ended, few survivors returned to the town. However, when in 1946 a group from the detachment of 'Freedom and Independence' partisan organzation killed two Jews, the rest left Bełżyce.

The Description

There were two Jewish cemeteries in Bełżyce managed by the commune. The older one was founded in the last quarter of the 16th century, next to the old synagogue, and was used until the beginning of the 19th century (today, a community center is located on part of this area). After 1810, the sanitary authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw issued a decision to create a new burial place for Bełżyce Jews, outside the town buildings. A new cemetery was established on the road to Urzędów (now Przemysłowa 28). The last known burial occurred here in May 1943. The necropolis survived in quite good condition, however, after World War II it was devastated by the local population. Matzevas were taken for construction purposes. In the 1960s, the cemetery was fenced with a metal mesh fence and trees were planted.

In 1990, thanks to the efforts of Nimrod Szulim Ariav-Cygielman, who spent the years of the German occupation in the Bełżyce ghetto, the cemetery area was cleaned, developed and fenced with a wall. The section around and above the entrance gate was expanded and decorated with a pattern of lighter stone in the shape of the Tree of Life. A stone was also erected with the inscription: 'In memory of all those who were buried in this place' and a monument in the shape of a tombstone, placed on the wall, with an inscription in Polish and Hebrew commemorating the murdered. A short history of the Jewish community in Bełżyce is also included on the back wall of the entrance. The author of the architectural and urban design, reliefs and sculptures was Zbigniew Gąsior from Warsaw, and the greenery was designed by Anna Pisarczyk.

In the Jewish cemetery in Bełżyce, several dozen tombstones have been preserved, including many broken ones. Some were returned by residents.

Author of the note: Magda Lucima

Właściciel praw autorskich do opisu: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN.