The cemetery functioned from 1857 and the last burial took place in May 1935.

History of the structure

Probably the first Jews appeared in Gogolin in the middle of the 19th century. However, the community was not numerous. It was not until the 1860s, together with the development of the lime industry, which utilized local limestone deposits, that the need for commercial and gastronomic services for employees working in the quarry and in the lime production industry arose and the town began to be more intensively settled by the Jewish community. Thus, at the turn of the 19th and 20th century about 70 Jews lived in Gogolin. They constituted a few percent of the town’s population and at the beginning of the 20th century they were economically significant residents (merchants, innkeepers, clerks). An independent Jewish community was established in the 1870s. They did not have their own synagogue and for prayers they gathered in a rented room (Betstube) which was probably located in a building close to the bus station (currently a bar on Ligonia Street). Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish population began to emigrate to the West. As a result, in 1912 only 45 Jews remained in Gogolin.

The Jewish cemetery in Gogolin was established outside the town limits, on the outskirts, south of the railroad station, on a plot of land donated to the local Jewish Filial Community, for the establishment of the cemetery, by the Gogolin innkeeper Meyer Fränkl. The Gogolin Jewish community fenced the cemetery area with a high wall made of marble stone and built a one-storey pre-burial house, which housed a mortuary on the ground floor and an apartment on the first floor. The house stood against the wall on the side of the street, with the entrance to the cemetery next to it. The Jewish community in Gogolin ceased to exist in the 1930’s, and in June 1943 the cemetery was taken over by the Gestapo from the Association of Jews in Germany.

In the 1960s the pre-burial building, collapsed and was demolished. Also the cemetery wall was rebuilt and lowered, and the part connecting it with the Evangelical cemetery was demolished.

Description of the structure

The cemetery, which was the necropolis of the Jewish community in Gogolin, was located outside the town limits, about 650 meters to the south from the railroad station, in Wyzwolenia St. It currently occupies an area of about 8 acres (north-western part of land plot no. 384) and is probably the original cemetery area. The archives and studies indicate an area of about 20 ares, but this is the common area of the Evangelical and Jewish cemeteries. The cemetery in Gogolin was established in 1857 and the last known burial took place on 13 May 1935. During World War II and after the war the cemetery was systematically devastated and plundered, however it was not completely destroyed. The boundaries of the cemetery were originally marked by a wall built of split limestone (marl) reinforced with bricks on three sides. The fence remained intact until the 1960s. At that time, the unused pre-burial house standing against the wall on the street side collapsed and was demolished. In 2006, it was renovated: the wall surrounding the cemetery was rebuilt and lowered, and the part connecting it with the Evangelical cemetery was demolished (from the south-eastern side). The original entrance to the cemetery led through the wall next to the pre-burial house, now bricked up. There is no apparent division of the cemetery into sections. The graves are arranged along a W-E line (with a tilt to the N) in four rows. They occupy the western part of the cemetery; there are no burials in the grassy eastern part. The cemetery is well-kept, covered with trees (some over a hundred years old) as well as grass and ivy.

During a site visit in 2018, the following was found: approximately 30 matzevot and obelisks made of sandstone, granite and marble were preserved. The graves are overgrown with bushes and ivy, and some of the matzevot (or their fragments and grave frames) are difficult to verify. It seems that the original cemetery may have included 50 graves. On the tombstones there are inscriptions in Hebrew and German. On decoratively topped matzevot the inscriptions are accompanied by symbols characteristic of Judaism (e.g. the Star of David, a wreath, broken candle).

The inspection showed that the cemetery is well maintained and systematically cleaned. In the 1990s, Gogolin authorities cleaned up the cemetery grounds. An information board was also erected. The grass is mowed on a regular basis.

To the north-west of the cemetery there are contemporary built houses, to the north-east - a wasteland overgrown with trees, to the south-west - Wyzwolenia Street, and to the south-east - an Evangelical cemetery.

A plaque informing about the Jewish cemetery is located on a brick pillar of the main entrance gate, and a conservation plaque informing that the site is a legally protected monument is located on an iron pillar on the south side of the gate.

Visitor access: the monument is open to the public.

Author: Krzysztof Spychała, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Opole, 15-06-2018

Bibliography

• Burchard P., Pamiątki i zabytki kultury żydowskiej w Polsce, Warsaw 1990, p. 196;
• Chrząszcz Johann, Geschichte der Stadt Krappitz in Oberschlesien, Breslau 1932;
• Archive of the Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Opole, cemetery card from 1984.
• Kalla-Szulc R., 150 lat cmentarza żydowskiego w Gogolinie, [in:] Kalejdoskop samorządowy Gminy Gogolin za rok 2006, Gogolin 2006, pp. 61–69;
• Kalla-Szulc R., Cmentarz żydowski w Gogolinie. Pamięć zaklęta w kamiennych nagrobkach, Krapkowice 2012;
• https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/miejscowosci/g/58-gogolin/114-cmentarze/13139-cmentarz-zydowski-w-gogolinie-ul-wyzwolenia (17.05.2023)
• http://mapy.geoportal.gov.pl/imap/?gpmap=gp0&actions=acShowWgButtonPanel_kraj_ORTO (17.05.2023)
• http://amzpbig.com/maps/025_TK25/5574_Gogolin_1931.jpg  (17.05.2023)