In May 1713, Emperor Charles VI issued an edict of tolerance allowing Jews to settle in Silesia after paying a special tolerance tax.

A wooden synagogue was built in the town 1764. In 1787, Pszczyna had 85 Jewish residents.

The driving force for the development of the Jewish community was the Emancipation Edict proclaimed on 1812 document, partially equating them in legal terms with Christian citizens. At the time of the proclamation of the edict, 24 Jewish families lived in Pszczyna, om 1835 – 210, in 1861 – 331 Jews.

In 1835 a new synagogue was built, and in 1847 the statute of the Synagogue Community in Pszczyna was adopted giving it legal personality.

In 1885, there were 340 Jews living in the town, but soon began a Silesian-wide process of migration to larger urban centers. It intensified after 1922, Pszczyna became part of Poland, which further intensified the process of Jewish emigration to large urban centres in Germany. Only 60 Jews remained in the town.

A phenomenon characteristic of the Second Polish Republic period was the influx of Jews from Polish lands, so to speak, taking the place of their emigrating predecessors. In 1931, 83 Jews lived in the town, and in 1939 – 91.

After the outbreak of World War II, on 10.05.1940. The Germans deported all local Jews from the town to Trzebinia. Most of them were exterminated in the German Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943.

After the end of World War II, Pszczyna was incorporated into Poland. It became of the centres of post-war Jewish settlement.

After the end of the war, a large number of Jews rescued in the USSR flowed into Pszczyna. In the mid-1950s, the town had a population of about 200 Jews. Most left the city after 1957, but there are still people of Jewish origin belonging to Jewish organizations in Bielsko-Biała, Katowice and Krakow. As of 2010, four more were born in pre-war Pszczyna.

The Description

The Jewish cemetery in Pszczyna was established north of the town centre, in the suburb formerly known as Skotnica, near the roads to Piasek and Jankowice, i.e. today’s Katowicka and Bieruńska streets. Earlier, the local Jewish community had been using the necropolis in Mikołów and, before 1683, in Oświęcim.

The cemetery in Pszczyna was located on a rectangular plot of land with an area of 0.64 ha, purchased by the community on 2 August 1814 from master carpenter Joseph Zawisza for 240 thalers. The due amount was fully paid on 20 December 1816, and four days later the Pszczyna Jewish community was finally registered as the owner of the plot in the land register. Burials were to be held in a 0.25-hectare section farthest to the east from the road, accessed by a pathway leading from the southern end of the front of the plot. The cemetery was surrounded with a wooden fence, and a small pre-burial house was built on the west side.

The first person buried in the cemetery was four-year-old Jettel Guttmann, daughter of the local rabbi, who died on 10 September 1814 in Pszczyna. The modest stele marking her grave has been preserved to the present day in its original place. The first adult laid to rest at the site, and the third person overall, was merchant Marcus Joachim (Meyer Jochem) Plessner from Pszczyna, who died on 9 December 1815 at the age of 69 or 72.

Apart from the residents of Pszczyna itself, the cemetery was also used by Jews from more than 20 nearby villages and farms. In the 1850s and 1860s, it also served the Jewish inhabitants of Dziedzice, which at the time remained within the Austrian territory.

In May 1878, two five-acre sections were separated from the cemetery plot, which reduced its total area to 0.54 ha. In the second half of 1888, as the necropolis was quickly filling up, the area designated for burials was extended towards the street by almost a quarter of a hectare. At the western edge, a new cemetery hall was erected, and a brick inner wall with two symmetrically placed wrought-iron wickets was installed. Both were designed by the Pszczyna master mason Ernst Betz on 12 May 1888. Utility facilities with an access alley to the building were organised between the street and the wall. The entire cemetery was surrounded with a new wooden board fence with concrete posts, and an entrance gate was installed by the street, opposite the pre-burial house.

The cemetery was vandalised on several occasions. The first documented act of deliberate devastation took place in September 1892. Further incidents, including destruction of tombstones, a series of thefts, and two robbery attacks on grave visitors occurred in the 1920s.

In total, just over 740 people were laid to rest in the cemetery, nearly 350 of whom were children under the age of thirteen.

The cemetery survived the period of World War II practically intact, although there were attempts to liquidate it or change its use.

The first major damage was inflicted on the site in early 1945, in warfare on the battlefront. In late January and early February, the German army set up defensive posts on the cemetery grounds and for about a week exchanged fire with Soviet soldiers stationed nearby. As a result, the quarter holding children’s graves was almost completely destroyed, the walls of the pre-burial house and numerous gravestones in the front section were damaged. Killed soldiers from both armies were buried in the cemetery in a mass grave.

After the end of World War II, the cemetery was looked after by the local Jews. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, cleaning works were carried out, and some overturned tombstones were set upright. In subsequent years, the condition of the cemetery started to deteriorate. Since 2005, advanced restoration works have been carried out at the site, supervised by the caretaker of the necropolis. It is currently one of the best-maintained Jewish necropolises in Poland.

Author of the note: Sławomir Pastuszka

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