He was followed by others, perhaps hailing from Głogów. They settled on the estate administered by the local governor, situated at Fischergasse, west of the Market Square, in the area which came to be the so-called Upper New Town. The Jewish settlers founded a community which may have comprised some 150 people. It is not known whether they established a cemetery or built a synagogue at that time. The townspeople saw their presence as unwelcome and pleaded with the king for their expulsion. The Jews were eventually forced to leave the town in 1595. They moved to the nearby Dębowa Łęka, which was a privately owned locality. However, following the proclamation of another royal edict in 1596, they were expelled from there as well.

Jews returned to Wschowa after the establishment of Nowe Miasto (New Town). In 1633, King Władysław IV issued a decree under which the local governor conceded to Jewish settlement in the new locality. Jews living in Nowa (New) Wschowa owned meadows and a sheepfold, and they were also granted a royal privilege allowing them to engage in trade. This once again was met with outrage from the townspeople, which resulted in the Jews being expelled once again in 1659. This pattern of the Jewish population repeatedly returning and then leaving the town reoccurred in the years of the Great Plague (1707–1713).

Fundamental changes in this state of affairs were only brought by the liberalisation of the policy towards Jews after 1793. In 1797, as many as 418 Jews lived in Wschowa, and in 1817 – 648. The first synagogue, located at today's Kopernika Street, was opened in 1772. In the years 1801–1809, it was reconstructed after a great fire of the town. It existed until 1885, when it was pulled down due to its poor technical condition. A new synagogue was built at the same site. In 1814, a Jewish elementary school was opened in one of the buildings in the Market Square of Nowe Miasto. It was closed in 1910, and the last few pupils were transferred to the Evangelical school. The Wschowa community also owned a mikveh, a teacher's house with a garden, and a community house with apartments and offices of the rabbi, cantor, and shochet.

The Jewish community in Wschowa existed until the 1940s. During the Kristallnacht, on the night of 9/10 November 1938, SA militias burnt down the synagogue, vandalised Jewish shops, and assaulted many local inhabitants. A literary description of these events is contained in Leonie Ossowski’s autobiographical novel Wolfberries (first German edition was printed in Hamburg in 1987, titled Wolfsbeeren). The anti-Jewish riots in Wschowa and its vicinity lasted for several days. Those who did not manage to leave the town by October 1941 were deported to camps and ghettos in the East, where they perished.

The Description

The community of Wschowa did not have its own cemetery for a long time. The bodies of the deceased were transported to Leszno. The community made first attempts to establish a separate burial place in 1759, but they turned unsuccessful due to protests of the Bishop of Poznań. Eventually, the Jews were able to found a cemetery under the royal decree of 1765. The Jewish cemetery in Wschowa was established in the northern suburb, at former 22 Töpferstraβe (nowadays 17 Pułku Ulanów Street). Its area covered 0.66 hectare. In 1904, a new residential house for the caretaker, a funeral home, a hearse garage, stables, and a new outhouse were built on the premises. The cemetery survived World War II without suffering major damage.

In 1972, by the decision of the District National Council, the cemetery was liquidated. The wall and all buildings were demolished, and the matzevot were used to pave Targowa Street. The former cemetery grounds now hold an informal playground. Four matzevot were transported to the Jewish cemetery in Szlichtyngowa, and a dozen or so tombstone fragments were placed in the Gravestone Sculpture Lapidarium in Wschowa. Nowadays, the former site of the cemetery is commemorated by a board with an inscription in two languages, Polish and German: "Board commemorating the site of the Jewish cemetery established in 1765, open until 1940. Please respect this place of eternal rest for many generations of Wschowa inhabitants."

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