Cmentarz Żydowski

pokestop

Throughout history, there were two Jewish cemeteries in Bochnia. The oldest of them was probably built in the 15th century, near the mouth of the Storynka saline stream to Babica. This necropolis was completely destroyed after the exile in 1605 of Jews from Bochnia. The "de non tolerandis Judaeis" privilege was abolished in 1860, but a larger group of Jewish settlers came to Bochnia only three years later, after Wiśnicz was consumed by fire. Over the next few years, the Jews of Bochnia buried their dead in Wiśnicz. For sanitary reasons, the city authorities opposed transporting the dead from Bochnia to Wiśnicz. Only after the cholera epidemic in 1872 did the Jewish community in Bochnia decide to establish its own cemetery. It was built on the Krzęczków hill, on land purchased from Lejb Herstein, at present street Krzęczków 5. The cemetery was rampant, and later a wall was erected. In 1873, a pre-burial house was built at the entrance, in which the watchman lived and ritual ablution of the corpse was carried out (Hebrew, Tahara). Over the next decades, the cemetery served as a burial place for Judaism believers from Bochnia and nearby towns, among others from Rzezawa, Mikluszowice, Dębina, Gawłów, and Nieznanowice. During World War I, a cemetery was established within the cemetery - war cemetery No. 313 - in which soldiers of Jewish origin were buried: 19 Austro-Hungarian soldiers from the 80th infantry regiment and 22 and 23 rifle regiments and 1 Russian soldier. It is known that in the 1930s the cemetery was surrounded by a wall 2 m high. A caretaker and a undertaker named Chaim lived in the pre-funeral home. The Gawądów Christian family living nearby had the right to use the grass growing in the cemetery. In February 1932, the local rabbi and tzadik Asher Meir Halberstam, son of Józef Zeewa from Chrzanów, grandson of tzadik Dawid from Chrzanów and great-grandson of the famous tzaddik Chaim Halberst from the Hasidic dynasty from Nowy Sącz was buried in the cemetery. After his father's death in 1902, Asher Meir Halberstam became the spiritual leader of the Hasidim from Bochnia. During World War II, the cemetery was the site of numerous executions. According to the Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes, the Nazis shot about 300 people here, the exact number of victims is unknown. At the cemetery, the Nazis killed people of Jewish origin who were captured outside the ghetto or hiding in the city and its surroundings. As Leon Gawąd recalls, at the behest of the occupation authorities, the wall was pulled down and the most valuable monuments were taken away. The devastation process continued after the war, but the Bochnia Beit Kwarot did not share the fate of many other Jewish cemeteries, almost completely destroyed by vandals. This was possible thanks to the efforts of, among others, New York-born rabbi Mendel Reichberg, chairman of the American Association for the Protection of Jewish Cemeteries and Historical Buildings in Poland; Abusch and Josef Hirsch as well as a resident of Bochnia Leon Gawąd. The cemetery was fenced again. Overturned matzevot were raised, and new concrete gravestones were erected in the place of the stolen tombstones. For many years the caretaker of the cemetery was Leon Gawąd. The building belongs to the best kept Jewish cemeteries in Poland. About 800 gravestones have survived within it. The oldest identified matzeva comes from 1873. The last known funeral took place in 1945, when Samuel Landwirth was buried, who died tragically on June 15, 1945

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