Jewish people were also exempt from taxes for the first seven years after settling in Żabno. However, they were only allowed to reside in selected streets.

The Description

The Jewish community of Żabno was rapidly growing in size. On 5 September 1692, Łukasz Franciszek Jurand granted the local Jews permission to erect a synagogue and establish a cemetery. The latter was founded on a plot covering one hectare, located in the north-eastern part of Żabno (at present Kościuszki Street). The area later came to be known as Zakirchale, deriving from the phrase “za kirchołem” – “beyond the Jewish cemetery.”

In the 19th century, the community continued to grow in spite of struggling with impoverishment and many natural disasters – floods (1813, 1828), an epidemic of cholera (1873), and a great fire (1888). At the turn of the century, Żabno became an important centre of Hasidism thanks to the presence of tzaddikim from the Unger family.

The Jewish population served an important role in the town, greatly contributing to the development of local trade and industry. The number of Jews living in Żabno only started to decrease at the beginning of the 20th century, largely due to emigration. The already difficult economic conditions in the town became even more dire in the period of World War I, which brought destruction, famine, and disease to the area. In 1921, 52% of the former Jewish residents of Żabno did not live in the town.

Before World War II, the local Jewish cemetery was surrounded with a concrete wall and a wooden fence with an entrance gate made of iron bars. Two buildings used to stand right next to the entrance. One of them served as a pre-burial house (beth tahara), called “the kosher building” by the local Christians. The second building was inhabited by the caretaker.

During World War II, the cemetery was severely damaged by the Germans. The buildings near the cemetery were demolished, and the wall was used as a target in exercises of German artillerymen. The necropolis came to serve as an execution site. On 15 September 1942, during the liquidation of the Żabno Ghetto, the Germans murdered and buried a group of Jews at the cemetery. The remaining Jewish population was deported to the ghetto in Dąbrowa Tarnowska, and from there to the extermination camp in Bełżec. A group of ca. 40 people managed to escape from the transport, but their later fate remains unknown. In March 1942, still before the liquidation of the ghetto, around a dozen people were murdered in the town and buried in the cemetery. In 1943, the German authorities executed a group of local Romani people at the site, later burying their bodies in a mass grave.

After the end of the war, the families of the murdered would erect symbolic tombstones for their deceased relatives in the cemetery. Among these were monuments dedicated to 19-year-old Dawid Salpeter, Majer Munc, Josef Keiner, Krysia Goldberg with her children, Bejla Keiner, Lola Drelich, and Debora Weiss.

In 1946, a commemorative plaque was placed on the mass grave of the murdered Romani  people on the initiative of the Żabno Municipal National Council (Polish: Miejska Rada Narodowa w Żabnie), adorned with the inscription: “Here rest the Romani murdered by the Nazi occupant in 1943.”

Over the following years, the cemetery was neglected and became overgrown with thick vegetation. It is the only surviving remnant of the Jewish community of Żabno. In 1990, it was entered into the register of monuments by the decision of the Provincial Monument Conservator under the number A-336, dated 2 November 1990. The early 1990s saw many changes taking place in the cemetery. Cleaning and restoration works were carried out at the site on the initiative of Abraham Ladner from Tarnów. The vegetation was trimmed and the fence was repaired. An ohel was erected over the grave of Żabień tzaddik Israel Elimelech Unger and his successors, son Yaacob Yitzchak and grandson Shlomo David. (Some researchers believe that the large building which originally stood on the same spot was used as a pre-burial house). The ohel has since become a pilgrimage site for the followers of the Hasidic Dombrov and Sanz dynasties.

In the summer of 2004, young volunteers from Israel, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and Spain carried out cleaning works at the cemetery. The initiative formed part of the “Antyschematy” programme supported by the Ministry of National Education and Sport, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, the Janusz Korczak Association, and the Polish Television. A matzeva-shaped monument commemorating Jews murdered during the Holocaust was unveiled at the site, bearing the following inscription: “Blessed be the memory of several hundred Jewish residents of Żabno, victims of Nazi crimes during World War II. Founders: Dorota Aronowitz, Genowefa Dombek, Mala Forst, Anna Shore. 20 August 2004.” The unveiling ceremony was attended by Israeli Ambassador to Poland David Peleg, inhabitants of Żabno, and descendants of the former Jewish residents of the town.

Over 100 matzevot have survived on the cemetery grounds, though they probably constitute only a small part of all tombstones from before World War II. Most of them are located in the eastern part of the necropolis and are made of sandstone. Some are quite tall, reaching even up to 150 centimetres. They are adorned with rich decorations. In 2021, a number of matzevot were uncovered by a flood wave passing through Gorzyce, a locality situated 7 km away from Żabno. Likely used to pave a drainage ditch in Gorzyce in the 1970s, the tombstones are believed to have been looted from the Jewish cemetery in Żabno. A year later, several dozen matzevot were excavated and transported to their original location. It is worth mentioning that the 1990 decision to enter the cemetery into the register of monuments mentioned 510 matzevot preserved at the site, most of them in the north-western section and along the fence, partially overturned.

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