The cemetery functioned from 1892 and the last burial took place in January 1941.

History of the structure

Probably the first Jewish community appeared in Głubczyce already in the Middle Ages. They resided in the town until the mid-16th century, when they were expelled. The Jewish community began to revive only at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the first years of the 19th century a Jewish community was re-established in Głubczyce. The most intensive development of the history of Głubczyce Jews took place in the second half of the 19th century. In 1845, 130 Jews lived in Głubczyce, and in 1861 there were 300 Jews, who constituted 3.5% of the total population. In 1890, the local Jewish community included 341 people. There was a Jewish school (lower secondary school) in the town, attended by 36 children in 1886. From 1865, there was a synagogue in the town, at König-Ottokar-Strasse (today’s Kochanowskiego Street). Due to a constant increase in the number of Jews in the town, it became necessary, first, to enlarge the existing Jewish cemetery (at today’s Sobieskiego Street) in 1868, and then, in 1892, to establish a new one (at today’s Wrocławska Street). The area of the cemetery was surrounded by a brick wall and planted with trees. A pre-burial house, demolished in the 1960s, was erected at the entrance from the street. From the beginning of the 20th century the number of Jews in Głubczyce was systematically decreasing. Although, in the second half of the 19th century the Jews of Głubczyce became more and more assimilated with the German surroundings, and their richest representatives belonged to the town’s elite, after the end of World War I the crisis, growing unemployment and economic transformations affected the inhabitants of Głubczyce, including Jews. There was a gradual decline in local trade, crafts and factories. This stimulated anti-Semitic acts and caused the majority of the local Jewish community to emigrate. Many Jews from Głubczyce decided to move to the West, usually to big urban centres in Germany, so that in 1932 there were only 111 Jews living in the town. The community ceased to exist in the 1940s, when the last Jews were deported to Auschwitz and Theresienstadt (Terezin - Czech Republic).

The cemetery was established in July 1892 and the last known burial took place in 1925 (a matzevah with the name of Max Bachrach: b. May 28, 1887, d. January 9, 1941). In 1939 the cemetery became the property of the Association of Jews in Germany (Reichsvereinigung der Juden) and in 1943 it was taken over by the Gestapo. During World War II and

in the post-war years the cemetery was systematically devastated and plundered, however it was not completely destroyed. The end of the matzevot and above-ground parts of the graves was in the mid-1960s, when the cemetery was cleaned up.

In 2013, upon the decision of the Regulatory Commission for Jewish Communities, composed of representatives of the government side and Jewish lawyers, the city of Głubczyce handed over the historical area of the Jewish cemetery to the Jewish Community.

Description of the structure

The cemetery, which is a new necropolis of the Jewish community in Głubczyce, is located outside the town limits, on the eastern side of Wrocławska St. It currently occupies an area of approximately 60 acres (land plot number 866/3). The cemetery is devastated: there are no matzevot and the traces of burials are covered with vegetation. Along the northern wall, among the vegetation, there is a row of remnants of grave frames. In the centre of the cemetery area (probably on a secondary site), among ivy and grass, lies the only preserved matzevah with the name of Max Bachrach (born 28.05.1887, died 9.01.1941). The cemetery is surrounded by a wall: a brick fence to the north, east and west, and a fence to the south: brick pillars joined with metal spans, shared with the former Evangelical cemetery, now a Catholic one. Along the northern and western fence there is a line of trees (lime trees), and in the middle of the cemetery area there are two lines of trees (maples, lime trees, chestnut trees); around the trees there is a lot of self-seeders (mainly maples); the area is covered with grass and bushes. The central part is covered with ivy and lilac: probably it is also the site of Jewish burials. The entrance to the cemetery leads from Wrocławska St.: there is the original metal gate and wickets on both sides. In the western part of the cemetery, heaps are piled with fragments of stelae, pedestals and concrete grave frames. However, these are not the remains of matzevot: some of them bear crosses, Christ’s head and other signs indicating that they are the remains transported from the former Evangelical cemetery nearby, which was liquidated for the needs of the municipal cemetery.

Today the cemetery is practically a disordered park area. Probably, the burials were not exhumed and during its cleanup in 1960s the still existing matzevot were taken away and used as a building material for paving streets in Głubczyce. There might have been a few dozen matzevot then. There may be fragments of destroyed matzevot underground in the cemetery area.

It is possible that the rows of trees define the division of the cemetery into parts, but this cannot be determined without reconnaissance and inventory.

The area of the cemetery requires constant vegetation maintenance: there is a lot of self-sowing plants. In 2011 the inmates of the Głubczyce Penitentiary Facility carried out cleaning works at the cemetery. The activities were carried out as part of the Polish-Israeli Tikkun - Repair project.

Information boards about the Jewish cemetery hang on the fence by the entrance from Wrocławska St.

Visitor access: the monument is open to the public.

Author: Krzysztof Spychała, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Opole, 02-07-2018

Bibliography

• Borkowski M., Kirmiel A., Włodarczyk T., Śladami Żydów. Dolny Śląsk, Opolszczyzna, Ziemia Lubuska, Warszawa 2008, pp. 116 - 117;
• Maler K., Dzieje Głubczyc w latach 1742-1945 r., Głubczyce 2015, p. 213;
• Burchard P., Pamiątki i zabytki kultury żydowskiej w Polsce, Warsaw 1990, p. 196;
• https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/miejscowosci/g/57-glubczyce/114-cmentarze/13008-cmentarz-zydowski-w-glubczycach-ul-wroclawska-9 (17.05.2023)
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