The first Jews in Brzeg Dolny were the employees of the Shabbethai Bass printing house and members of their families, and the first house of prayer was arranged in the premises of the printing house. Over time, a separate house of prayer was built near the printing house, which functioned until 1785, when a decision was taken to build a synagogue.

In 1847, a new synagogue was built at what was then Flurstr. 62, and the Jews from Brzeg Dolny were supported by the Rothschild banking family from Frankfurt and Vienna. The consecration ceremony took place on 9 January 1848. The temple was used until 1918, i.e. until the liquidation of the Jewish community in Brzeg Dolny, and became the property of the Synagogue Community in Wrocław afterwards, which sold it to the city in 1926. A year later, a fire station was arranged in the building.

During World War II, there were two branches of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Brzeg Dolny, where Jews from Poland and Hungary worked. After 1945, Brzeg Dolny was not a centre of mass Jewish settlement. The building of the synagogue has survived and is still used as a fire station.

In 1689, Shabbethai Bass, who was the leader of the Jewish community in the town, obtained a permit to establish a religious cemetery. On 28 December that year, he bought the land from Christoph Günther, a local shoemaker, which was located behind the palace zoo for the sum of 17 thalers. Soon, the Chevra Kadisha was established in Brzeg Dolny. It is not known whether the cemetery was in use in the 17th century, as the oldest matzevot identified by the researchers come from the 1720s. According to Marcin Wodziński, the area became a burial place for the Jews from Brzeg Dolny probably between 1718 and 1723/27. However, Leszek Ziątkowski does not agree with that thesis and suggests that the cemetery could have been used earlier and that the tombstones did not survive to the present day.

The cemetery in Brzeg Dolny also played an important role in the activities of the Jewish Community in Wrocław, which did not have its own necropolis until 1762. It was one of several Jewish cemeteries where the Jews of Wrocław were buried. In 1749, most of the Jewish victims of the explosion of the Gunpowder Tower in Wrocław were buried in Brzeg Dolny.

The Description

In 1762, after the establishment of the Jewish cemetery in Wrocław, the Jewish community in Wrocław (represented by Abraham Kuh, Lippmann Wolf Freund, Jesai Löb Berliner and Lippmann Bär) concluded an agreement with Count Franz von Sternberg - the owner of the land surrounding the cemetery - to continue using the cemetery. They had to pay 50 thalers per year for cemetery maintenance. In 1805, the necropolis was expanded - at that time, 37 rods of land were purchased from Count Karl Georg von Hoym – the Silesian minister and owner of Brzeg Dolny - for 150 thalers. An annual rent of 50 thalers was paid by the Jewish Community in Wrocław. That amount was paid by the Jewish Community Co-operative from Wrocław until 1818. In 1833, the Jews from Brzeg Dolny repaired the fence of the cemetery at their own expense, which was replaced by a solid wall in 1903. This fact was commemorated by the publication of an occasional print dedicated to the history of the necropolis - Geschichte der jüd. Friedhofs in Dyhernfurth. Festschrift zur Einweihung der Mauer um den jüd. Friedhof daselbst by David Weinbaum.

The cemetery in Brzeg Dolny was expanded several times – e.g. in 1881, with a plot of land donated by the owners of the estate in Brzeg Dolny. After the liquidation of the Jewish Community Co-operative in Brzeg Dolny, the cemetery - along with the accompanying infrastructure - became the property of the Jewish Community in Wrocław. The last funeral took place in 1936 - the person was Dorothea Mannheim, née Kottlarzig, and the event was described in the "Breslauer Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt" newspaper.

In 1938, during Kristallnacht, the necropolis was destroyed - most of the tombstones were overturned. After the outbreak of World War II, it was not taken over by the Gestapo. According to Marcin Wodziński, the Jewish cemetery was handed over by the Wrocław Jewish community to the owner of the castle. It is very likely as it was formally part of the palace park. Presently, only the bases of matzevot and a trace of the funeral home can be found at the cemetery. None of the matzevot have survived to the present day; however, detailed descriptions of the tombstones can be found in the inventory created by German researchers - Faber and Brilling  .

At the moment, the cemetery is located in the area of the former municipal park and it is entered in the register of historical monuments under no. A/2664/195. It is situated south of the Black Pond, north of the Swan Pond, west of the Owl Alley and north of the Hawk Alley. It constitutes a fragment of plot no. 66/4 owned by the Municipality of Brzeg Dolny. A few pieces of tombstones and grave frames, as well as the foundations of a building have been preserved on its territory.

In 2013, archaeological and surveying works were performed in the Municipal Park in Brzeg Dolny, as part of which the inventory of the remains of Jewish tombstones was created, the foundations of the cemetery wall and many tombstone plinths were discovered, and parts of the cemetery gate were excavated  .

Author of the note: Tamara Włodarczyk

References

• Faber K., Dyhernfurth/Schlesien. Abschriften der Grabsteine auf dem jüdischen Friedhof in Dyhernfurth, Sammlung Bernhard Brilling, Archiv des Jüdischen Museums Frankfurt am Main.
• Die letzte Beerdigung auf dem jüdischen Friedhof Dyhernfurth, "Breslauer Jüdische Gemeindeblatt" 1936, no. 22.
• Grotte A., Alte Schlesische Judenfriedhöfe (Breslau und Dyhernfurth), Berlin 1927.
• Grünewald M., Zur Geschichte der Jüdischen Gemeinde Dyhernfurth, Breslau 1881.
• Kaszuba E., Ziątkowski L., Historia Brzegu Dolnego, Brzeg Dolny-Wrocław 1998.
• Komunikat z działań archeologiczno-pomiarowo-inwentaryzatorskich w Parku Miejskim w Brzegu Dolnym w dniu 23 września 2013 roku, [in:] Brzeg Dolny. Dzieje wybranych instytucji i zagadnień, ed. J. Koredczuk, vol. II, Brzeg Dolny 2017.
• Weinbaum D., Geschichte der jüd. Friedhofs in Dyhernfurth. Festschrift zur Einweihung der Mauer um den jüd. Friedhof daselbst, Breslau 1903.
• Wodziński M., Hebrajskie inskrypcje na Śląsku XIII-XVIII wieku, Wrocław 1996.
• Ziątkowski L., Dzieje Żydów we Wrocławiu, Wrocław 2000.

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