The cemetery functioned from 1814 and the last burial took place in the late 1930s.

History of the structure

The only trace of the Jewish community that once existed in the Olesno Region is a Jewish cemetery, located in Młyńska St., in the area once known as “Jewish Switzerland” due to its location in a picturesque corner of the town, in the Młynówka River valley. In 1814, the Jewish community of Olesno established a cemetery outside the town, implementing the ordinance issued by the Prussian king on 24 May 1814, which ordered Jewish families living farther than one mile from their place of residence to take care of the burial of their dead, under the threat of expulsion from their place of residence.

Probably the first Jewish community appeared in Olesno already in the Middle Ages. However, it was not until the end of the 18th century that the Jewish community began to settle in the town more intensively, when the number of Jews exceeded 100 people, and an independent Jewish community started to function in the first years of the 19th century. By the middle of the 19th century the community included over 200 people, and by the end of that century over 250. They constituted a few percent of the town’s population and at the beginning of the 20th century they were economically significant residents of the town. However, a wave of labour emigration at the turn of the 19th and 20th century and World War I caused a decrease in the number of Jews in Olesno, and in 1925 only 125 people of Jewish descent were registered in the town, in 1936 - 83, and in 1938 - 58. Before the outbreak of World War II there were only 34 Jews living in Olesno. Nazi repressions forced many Jews of Olesno to leave their hometown. Then, during the Kristallnacht of 1938, the synagogue, built between 1887 and 1889, was burned down.

The cemetery was used until World War II. In this cemetery, Jews, residents of Olesno and nearby villages, buried their dead. The necropolis was originally surrounded by a stone wall, and the brick fence, which survived in large part, was erected in 1868, when the pre-burial house was built and the stone fence was dismantled.

In 1939 the cemetery became the property of the Association of Jews in Germany and then it was taken over by the Gestapo. The cemetery survived World War II in good shape. It was destroyed and devastated in the years after the war, including the plunder of valuable tombstones, destruction of the pre-burial house and partial collapse of the fence wall.

Description of the structure

The necropolis of the Olesno Jewish community was located outside the town, west from its centre, on the northern high terrace of the Stobrawa River and its tributary - Młynówka. Nowadays it is accessible via Młyńska Street, along which buildings were developed in the 20th century, and thus the necropolis is practically located among houses. It is located on land plot no. 3262 with an area of approximately 0.4 hectares. The historic boundaries of the cemetery are legible. The cemetery was built on a rectangular-shaped plan (about 75m x 40m).

A separate plot of land is fenced with a brick wall: between the brick columns (ending with double-pitched tiles) there are openwork brick spans, the crown of which is finished with diagonally arranged bricks. A pre-burial house (approximately 10m x 8m), renovated in the early 1990s, is located on the north side. It was built in 1868 of red brick with a low gable roof, the ridge aligned with the NS line. The front is decorated with brick pilasters at the wooden double doors and corners. It is crowned with a brick triangular gable with a rectangular stone board with an inscription in Polish and Hebrew. Above the lintel of the door in the front and in the back of the building there are round window openings with a simple one-colour stained glass window depicting the Star of David. The eastern wall has two high window openings closed with semicircles. The rear (south) wall is straight without pilasters, with a similar door as in the front. A brick fence and gate adjoin the building on the east side, and a further fence on the west side. Internally the building is plastered with a concrete? floor. Also on the west side, there was originally a smaller and lower brick building (about 6m x 4m) with a wall partially shared with the pre-burial house, with its ridge perpendicular to the pre-burial house. Between the two buildings was a doorway, now bricked up. On this wall of the pre-burial house, you can see the trace of the roof and wall joints of the smaller building. This building had a brick floor. This annex was completely demolished in 1992 during the renovation of the pre-burial house.

The necropolis is overgrown with trees, grass and ivy. In the area of the cemetery there are several dozens of trees. In the centre of the cemetery there are six oaks about 150 - 200 years old (they should be declared as nature monuments) and several dozen years old (about 30-70 years old) birches, ash trees, locust trees, chestnut trees, and self-seeders of these trees.

The graves occupy almost the entire area of the cemetery, except for the main avenue. The cemetery could even count about 450 burials. There are preserved matzevot, pedestals under the matzevot, grave enclosures and overturned matzevot partially covered with soil and plants. Some of the matzevot were intentionally knocked over and smashed. Vegetation and moss thrive on the graves, burial plots and stelae. The surfaces of some of the matzevot are clearly weathered or worn away, and the inscriptions are illegible. Several dozens of matzevot (about 50 pieces) have been gathered by the pre-burial house and the demolished small building and lie overgrown with bushes. In the centre of the cemetery there is a well, now covered with a concrete lid, and next to it there is a brick, plastered, square-shaped settler. Originally there was a metal (cast iron?) decorative pump at the well.

In 1992 the necropolis was renovated and cleaned up. The pre-burial house, which had been ruined in the war and post-war years, was renovated. In 1987 it still had no roof, windows or doors. At that time, the wooden structure of the roof was rebuilt and covered with tiles, the window and door frames were reconstructed and supplemented, the fence was partially rebuilt and a new gate inserted. The initiator of these works was Mrs Władysława Kotowicz. She also took care of finding sponsors, including Prof. Marvin Meistrich from Texas and the Olesno Municipal Office.

The gate is closed. Entrance to the necropolis by prior notification at the Municipal Office.

The necropolis is surrounded by a brick openwork wall (partly original, reconstructed in some places) with regularly set posts. Openwork brick spans extend between the brick columns (ending with double-slope tiles), the crown of which is finished with diagonally arranged bricks. It was built in the second half of the 19th century. The original fence was made of stone - slate (visible preserved fragments on the western side, on the steep edge of the terrace). Currently, the fence is partially destroyed. On the western side, the fence is completely missing: as it stood on the edge of the river terrace, it may have lost its stability and slipped away, and only the foundation remains. The entrance to the cemetery is from the north, from Młyńska Street, through a new gate. It is a two-part padlocked wooden gate. On the west side of the gate stands a pre-burial house that is part of the fence. On the southern side of the adjacent land plot, outbuildings were added to the outer side of the fence.

The area is cleaned up: the grass is mowed. Lack of care for trees and self-seeders (especially by the pre-burial house and the southern part of the cemetery. In the 1990s, renovation and cleaning works were carried out on the necropolis, e.g. the pre-burial house which still did not have a roof at the end of the 1980s, was renovated. The fence was partially rebuilt and the area in front of the Jewish cemetery on the side of Młyńska Street was cleaned up.

According to archive data from 2008, the Training and Education Centre of Voluntary Labour Corps in Olesno undertook to look after the Jewish cemetery in Olesno.

Graves and their remains are clearly visible in the area of the cemetery: the layout of the grave yard is legible. Burials are arranged in rows along a N-S line, on either side along the avenue, and the graves are oriented generally along an E-W line. Individual burials alternate with burial plots, graves without enclosures with graves with enclosures. The western and southwestern parts are mostly graves without enclosures, while the eastern part in particular has burial plots and graves with enclosures and gate-shaped graves, symbolizing the transition from earthly life to the land of the dead.

In the area of the cemetery there are about 370 complete matzevot and their large fragments: standing, leaning or overturned and broken, partially sunk in the ground, pedestals for stelae and grave enclosures. They are mainly flat stone slabs and in the form of obelisks and “gates”. There are grave mounds without matzevot, which were probably moved near the pre-burial house or stolen as valuable material. Several matzevot have “grown” into the tree trunk. The matzevot date back to the 19th and early 20th century. Some of them, made in soft, easy-to-work-with stone, are richly carved, even artistic in form. Typical ornaments (e.g. blessing hands, a jug with a bowl, a broken tree (a palm tree), a broken flower or a candle, the Star of David, a winged hourglass, a wreath, a leaf or palm leaves, a rose flower) and inscriptions in Hebrew and German or in both languages on one matzevah (on several on both sides of the gravestone) have been preserved. They were mainly made of sandstone, marble, crystalline limestone and granite. A few graves have granite stelae with a slab in which there is a plaque made of limestone or sandstone. Many whole matzevot and fragments lie on the ground, often under a layer of humus, ivy and leaves.

There are over 400 burials on the cemetery. In many of them only the base of the matzevot or the enclosures of the graves dug years ago are visible. At many of the pedestals lie overturned stelae, often broken. Many matzevot of the cemetery are damaged and the stone of the stelae is weathered, therefore the inscriptions on them are often illegible.

By the fence from Młyńska St., on the left side of the gate, there is a plaque on metal posts (in Polish, English, German and Hebrew) informing about the history of the cemetery.

The site requires:

- care, removal of bushes and systematic sanitary pruning of trees and vegetation;

- tidying up the burials and matzevot (some of them were intentionally overturned and smashed);

- repair and rebuilding of fencing and wells;

A quick, professional inventory and description of the layout of the graves is essential, as well as the conservation of the matzevot (the surface of the stone, especially sandstone, corrodes).

At the beginning of Młyńska Street there should be a signpost informing about the Jewish cemetery.

In the centre of the necropolis there are six oak trees about 150 - 200 years old: they should be declared as nature monuments.

Visitor access: the monument is open to the public. The gate is closed. Entrance to the necropolis by prior notification at the Municipal Office.

Author: Krzysztof Spychała, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Opole, 09-12-2018

Bibliography

- record sheet of the cemetery from 1987,

- register entry file;