In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Kłodzko, a legendary version of which is commemorated in the painting "Historia z hostią" (The story of the Host) from the 15th or the 16th century, which is part of the collection of the Museum of the Kłodzko Land.

The modern Jewish community in Kłodzko was established after 1812, when Jews from Biała (Zülz), from Silesia and Greater Poland settled down in the town. The first Jew from Kłodzko who was granted citizenship rights was Abraham Sachs from Biała. In 1840 there were 60 Jewish residents in the town, in 1880 - 251, and in 1900 - 106. The Jewish community played an important role in the social and economic development of the town.

Initially, the Jews prayed in rented houses of prayer at Czeska Street and the Bolesława Chrobrego Square, and a synagogue was built at Grünestr (presently Wojska Polskiego Street) in the years 1884-1885. The synagogue was built according to the design of an architect from Wrocław - Albert Grau. Its official opening took place on 2 September 1885. The temple survived for 53 years - during the Kristallnacht pogrom, from 9 to 10 November 1938, it was set on fire and subsequently demolished. In 1995, an obelisk commemorating the temple was placed on the site of the former synagogue, which was the initiative of the former German and Jewish residents of the town and the local government.

After the Nazis came to power, some Jews managed to emigrate from Kłodzko, while others shared the fate of their co-religionists in Lower Silesia. Some of them were sent to transit camps for Jews in Krzeszów (Grüssau), Prędocice (Tormersdorf) and Rybna (Riebnig), and then, they were deported to concentration camps, extermination camps or ghettos in the eastern territories, where almost all of them died.

After the Second World War, Polish Jews settled down in Kłodzko - in July 1946, their number was 3,430. Many Jewish organisations and institutions were established in the town, and after the Kielce pogrom, it became an important centre of illegal Jewish emigration from Poland. Although most of the Jews left the town in successive waves of emigration, Jewish organisations continued to operate in the town.  Jewish life in Kłodzko came to an end with the liquidation of the local branch of the Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland, which took place in 1978.

The Description

The cemetery of the Jewish community of Kłodzko was established in 1825, when its representatives - Selig Caro, Salomon Forell, Wolff Sittenfeld, Jakob Frommer, Fabian Silberstein and Moritz Polke - bought the land located in front of the School Gate for 100 German thalers. It was to replace the necropolis located near the Theresian Gate, by the Neisse River, which had previously been rented by Jews from Kłodzko.

In the new cemetery, the first funeral took place in 1833. At that time, a wall was built around the necropolis and a funeral home was soon erected there, which was a place of residence of a gravedigger and supervisor of the facility. The cemetery was expanded twice - in 1888 and 1927.

Representatives of the Kłodzko elite of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are buried at the necropolis, and there are also symbolic tombstones of two heroes of World War I - Salo Dzialoszynski (decorated with the Iron Cross) and Harry Schutz, who died in Flanders while fighting in the ranks of the 38th Field Marshall Count Helmuth von Moltke Fusilier Regiment (Sturmabteilungen).

In the early 1940s, the cemetery was owned by the Association of Jews in Germany and covered an area of 33 ares and 33 square metres. After the property was seized by the Gestapo, it was sold to the town of Kłodzko for RM 5,600 (Reichsmark) in 1944. A condition of the sale was a 30-year period of “peace” from the last burial.

During World War II, a Soviet prisoner of war, Alexander Gołubiew, from Stalag 308 in Neuhammer (Świętoszów), was buried in the cemetery. After 1945, the cemetery was used for burials of Polish Jews, who lived in large numbers in Kłodzko and its surroundings. In 1946, a plaque was placed on the mass grave of Jews murdered in 1945 (probably prisoners of one of the nearby branches of the Gross-Rosen camp) which reads: "Here lie unknown Jews, victims of Nazi thugs, murdered in May 1945 - Jewish Religious Congregation, Kłodzko, 17 November 1946".

In the 1970s, the funeral home was demolished due to the establishment of a branch of the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology in the neighborhood. In 1974, the cemetery was officially closed for burials, and it became the property of the Jewish Religious Community from Wrocław in 2000. Its location is identified as 18 Bohaterów Getta Street and it covers the plot no. 95, AM-3, Kłodzko District 0009. In 2006, the necropolis was entered in the register of historical monuments under the number A/740.

The cemetery consists of two sections - the German section with tombstones from the 19th and first thirty years of the 20th century, and the post-war Polish section. A total of approximately 375 graves have been identified so far, with approximately 215 tombstones preserved (including 29 in the Polish section). The oldest matzevah that has survived until today is from 1845.

In the period from 2005 to 2007, on the initiative of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, in cooperation with the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe and the town of Kłodzko, the cemetery was cleaned up, volunteers and rubbish were removed and the knocked over matzevot were arranged in the upright position.

The original entrance to the cemetery was located on the eastern side, next to the funeral home and the prison building. Today, the entrance gate can be found at a street parallel to Bohaterów Getta Street, which can be reached from Hołdu Pruskiego Street, turning left (towards Dąbrówki Street) and walking along the cemetery wall. The key to the entrance gate can be found in the healthcare centre - Kłodzki Obwód Lecznictwa Kolejowego - at 7/9 Łużycka Street, at the office of dr Ignacy Einhorn.

Author of the note: Tamara Włodarczyk

Bibliography

• Brilling B., Die jüdischen Gemeinden Mittelschlesiens. Entstehung und Geschichte, Stuttgart 1972.
• Połomski F., Zawłaszczenie i sprzedaż cmentarzy żydowskich w latach II wojny światowej na Śląsku. Ze studiów nad prawa własności w III Rzeszy, "Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis", no. 815 (Studia nad Faszyzmem i Zbrodniami Hitlerowskimi, vol. XI).
• Włodarczyk T., Przyczynek do dziejów kłodzkiej synagogi, "Zeszyty Muzeum Ziemi Kłodzkiej" 2015, no. 13.
• Włodarczyk Tamara, Einhorn Ignacy, Jamróg Tomasz, Dzieje społeczności żydowskiej w Kłodzku w XIX-XX w. , Warszawa 2006.
• Wodziński M., Hebrajskie inskrypcje na Śląsku XIII-XVIII wieku, Wrocław 1996.

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