The town authorities, taking advantage of the unfavourable atmosphere towards Jews, adopted the "De non tolerandis Iudaeis privilege" of King Vladislaus of Bohemia at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. Despite that, Margrave George Hohenzollern tried to prevent the removal of Jews from the towns of the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz, which he explained by economic reasons. In 1520, the residents and merchants of Głubczyce accused the Jews of a ritual murder of a child from the village of Krzyżowice.

In 1539, the expulsion of the Jews from Głubczyce took place, due to growing discontent and tension among the townsmen who were unhappy with the economic power of the Jews. In 1543, Margrave George Hohenzollern issued a document banning Jews from settling down in Głubczyce.

The driving force behind the development of the Jewish community was the “Civic Relations Edict” issued on 1812. This document, commonly known as the "emancipation edict", introduced a fundamental change in the situation of Jews in the Kingdom of Prussia, making them partly legally equal to Christian citizens. At the time the edict was issued, there were 10 Jewish families living in Głubczyce.

A house of prayer was erected around 1815. In 1818, 62 Jews lived in Głubczyce. By 1830, the number of Jews was 94 and after 1847, the Prussian authorities adopted the "Act on Jewish relations".

From 1847 onwards, the Jews from Głubczyce used the annexe of the house of the master carpenter, Mantke, to pray. In 1850, there were 300 Jews in the town. In 1862, that number stayed the same - there were 301 Jews in Głubczyce at that time.

In the years 1864 - 1865, a new synagogue was erected outside the former city walls, on the site of the former moat. In 1890, there were 341 Jews living in Głubczyce.

The turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was characterized by an increased emigration of Upper Silesian Jews to larger urban centres in Germany. That trend was also the case of Głubczyce. The number of Jews in the town fell from 341 in 1890 to 174 in 1910.

In 1932, 111 Jews lived in Głubczyce.

During the so-called Kristallnacht of 9 to 10 November 1938, organized pogroms against the Jewish population took place in Germany. That was also the case of Głubczyce, where the synagogue was burnt down and a lot of property that belonged to Jews was demolished, inter alia. Those events intensified the emigration of the Jewish population. According to the census of May 1939, there were 44 Jews in the town.

In the spring of 1942 deportations of last Jews to ghettos, transit-camps or directly to extermination camps began. Those actions continued – but on a smaller scale - also in 1943. In April 1943, there were 10 Jews living in Głubczyce.

The Description

Due to the fact that the existing burial ground was full, a new Jewish cemetery was established in Głubczyce at the beginning of 1896. It was arranged on a plot in a shape of a trapezium, approximately 6,500 square meters, located to the north of the town center, on what was then Oberglogauerstrasse (presently Wrocławska Street), on the northern side of the new Christian cemetery. There was a brick wall with a gate and wicket gate around the plot, and there was a funeral home with an apartment for a caretaker-gardener in its south-west corner.

Information about the buried can be found in the burial book of both Jewish cemeteries in Głubczyce, which has survived until today. According to the book, the first person buried in the new cemetery was Caroline Oppenheim (née Rosenthal), who died on 9 February 1896 at the age of 61. By November 1937, a total of 140 adults were buried there: 82 in standard graves and 58 in matrimonial graves of honour. There are no entries for deceased children, who, undoubtedly, had their own separate section. Despite the fact that the burial book was no longer maintained, regular funerals took place at the cemetery also during the Second World War. The last person buried at the cemetery was a former merchant, Gustav Sachs, who died on 9 February 1943 at the age of 81. Apart from those who died in Głubczyce, Jewish residents of Branice also found their eternal resting place there, as well as some residents of the local psychiatric hospital.

On 4 July 1939, the necropolis became the property of the Association of Jews in Germany. At the beginning of July 1940, Max Zimmermann, a member of the management board of a local Jewish community, informed about minor damage to the old cemetery from the beginning of 1939; therefore, it should be assumed that there was no damage to the new cemetery at that time. On 10 June 1943, the necropolis was taken over by the Gestapo and handed over to the district tax office in Głubczyce. It remained in good condition until 1945.

After the Second World War, the cemetery, left unattended, gradually deteriorated, to which the human factor also contributed. That process continues despite several clean-up actions undertaken in recent years. In the 1960s, the cemetery buildings were demolished and only some visible pieces of the foundations were left.

Currently, the area of the cemetery is overgrown with dense bushes, among which one can find damaged elements of tombstones, including those from the neighboring Evangelical cemetery. There is a brick wall around the plot, with a gate with a rusty padlock.

The building is entered in the register of historical monuments of the Opole Province (no. 245/90 of 26 March 1990).

Author of the note: Sławomir Pastuszka

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