In 1839, the town was home to 10 people of the Jewish faith, and in 1843, the Wałbrzych County was inhabited by 32 Jews. The Wałbrzych Jewish community was established in 1859 and covered the area of the Wałbrzych County. The first official of the Jewish Community Council in Wałbrzych was Leipziger, and the only rabbi was Dr Tobias Samter who held office from 1881 to 1893. In 1880, the Jewish community was the most numerous with 300 people.

The Wałbrzych synagogue was built between 1882 and 1883 at what was then Wasserstraße, and was consecrated on 20 September 1883. The temple was faithful to an eclectic style that drew primarily on the Italian Renaissance. In 1938, during the Kristallnacht pogrom, the temple was burnt down and its ruins were then demolished. In the 21st century, a commercial centre was built on the square where the synagogue had been located. In 1927, a municipal house was built next to the synagogue (8 św. Jadwigi Street); it included a prayer room, meeting rooms for the municipal board, and a flat for the municipal clerk.

In the early 1930s, the Jews of Wałbrzych who failed to emigrate from Germany were deported to the so-called transit camps for the Jews of Lower Silesia in Prędocice (Ger. Tormersdorf), Krzeszów (Ger. Grüssau) and Rybna (Ger. Riebnig), and then they were sent on transports from Wrocław to concentration camps and extermination sites – including Auschwitz, Treblinka, the ghetto in Minsk, extermination camps in the east and Theresienstadt.

After World War II, Wałbrzych became an important centre of Jewish settlement. The first Jewish inhabitants of the town were prisoners of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp and its local subcamps. In July 1946, there were 7,466 Jews here and 10,200 in December of the same year, which at the time represented 17.9% of the town's total population. Such a large Jewish population also resulted from the fact that Wałbrzych became one of the transfer points for illegal emigration. Jewish religious, social, cultural, educational and economic institutions were organised in the city. Today, the local branch of the Social and Cultural Association of Jews (Polish: Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów) in Poland continues to operate in Wałbrzych.

The Description

In 1902, the Synagogue Community in Wałbrzych received land from the management of the Prince Hochberg von Pless mine for the establishment of a new burial site. This was probably compensation for the seizure of a part of the old cemetery site for investment. The “new” cemetery was located at the then Friedländer Chaussee (today's Stanisława Moniuszki Street) and together with the Catholic and Protestant cemeteries formed a complex of municipal necropolises. The first person buried on its grounds was a member of the Wałbrzych Jewish community named Leipziger.

Between 1902 and 1903, a neo-Gothic funeral home was built at the cemetery, funded by Max and Flora Fleischer and Salo and Sophie Wygodziński, combining elements of Gothic and rundbogenstil.

Since 1866, There was a burial society at the Wałbrzych synagogue community under the name of Israeli Funeral and Support Society (German:Israelitischer Beerdigungs- und Unterstützungsverein, Chewra Kadischa). Its task was to provide assistance to those in need and organise burials. In the early 1930s, it had 85 members and its chairman was J. Philippsberg.

In the early 1930s, the cemetery was owned by the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (German: Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland) and was later taken over by the Gestapo. At the time, its area was 28 a 94 sq m and featured a funeral home and around 150 tombstones. A special committee valued the cemetery at RM 1,200, including the building. The tombstones were valued separately at RM 1,000 and bought by a local craftsman,  In November 1944, the City of Wałbrzych was interested in purchasing the property, but it is not known whether the transaction has been finalised.

After World War II, the cemetery became a burial place for Polish Jews from Wałbrzych and the surrounding area. From the first post-war years comes a symbolic monument dedicated to the prisoners of the Gross-Rosen camp, erected by fellow prisoners who settled in Wałbrzych after World War II. The obelisk includes the names of several Holocaust victims – Blas from Jaworzno, Jakubowicz from Będzin, Reicher from Chrzanów, Besen from the Netherlands, Juker and Kornhauser.

Today, the cemetery is located in a cemetery complex, in the immediate vicinity of the Catholic and Evangelical cemeteries. Few pre-war tombstones (located in the western section) have survived to the present day – this is due, among other things, to the reuse of burial sites, which was not practiced at other Jewish cemeteries in the Lower Silesian region. Among the pre-war tombs stand out the two tombs of the Peritz and Thomas families and the tomb of cantor Jacob Gerson Bähr. Among the post-war tombstones, noteworthy is the tombstone of Ludwik Hofman – one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Wałbrzych and the last chairman of the Jewish Community Council in Wałbrzych. Another person buried here is Esther Kelberman – a headmistress of the Jewish school in Wałbrzych.

There are around 150 gravestones in the cemetery, most of which are made of sandstone, granite and marble. The cemetery is fenced with mesh and surrounded by cemeteries to the north and east and by residential buildings to the south.

The cemetery is owned by the Jewish Religious Community (Polish: Gmina Wyznaniowa Żydowska) in Wrocław and still remains an active cemetery where burials of Jews from Wałbrzych and the surrounding area take place. It is located at 36 Stanisława Moniuszki Street and occupies plot of land no. 494, AM-11, section 0027, with an area of 0.4892 ha. In 1992, the necropolis was entered into the register of monuments under the number A/4621/1365/Wł. The funeral home was granted monument status in 2015. (register entry no. A/5972).

Author of the note: Tamara Włodarczyk

Bibliography

• Brilling B., Die jüdischen Gemeinden Mittelschlesiens. Entstehung und Geschichte, Stuttgart 1972.
• Decyzja w sprawie wpisania dobra kultury do rejestru zabytków z 16 marca 1992 r. [Decision on the entry of the cultural asset into the register of monuments of 16 March 1992].
• Decyzja w sprawie wpisu zabytku do rejestru zabytków z 21 sierpnia 2015 r. [Decision on the entry of the monument into the register of monuments of 21 August 2015].
• Grużlewska A., Żydzi z prowincji. Świdnicki i wałbrzyski okręg synagogalny 1812-1945, Dzierżoniów 2016.
• Karta cmentarza żydowskiego w Wałbrzychu, comp. K. Myśliński, 1989.
• Pflug K., Chronik der Stadt Waldenburg in Schlesien, Waldenburg 1908.
• Połomski F., Zawłaszczenie i sprzedaż cmentarzy żydowskich w latach II wojny światowej na Śląsku. Ze studiów nad prawem własności w III Rzeszy, “Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis”, No. 815 (Studia nad Faszyzmem i Zbrodniami Hitlerowskimi, vol. XI).

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