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Cmentarze żydowskie w województwie katowickim : historia, stan zachowania, problemy ochrony

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Walerjański D.

Ochrona Zabytków

1998

issue 3

246-257

For decades, Jewish cemeteries in Poland have been deprived of care ensured by families of the deceased. Unrenovated, unconservated and, in many localities, gradually devastated, they disappeared owing to their usage as an easily accessible source of construction material (Dąbrowa Gornicza, Olkusz, Toszek, Mysłowce, Chorzow, Raciborz). Broken and cracked headstones found in areas overgrown with trees and weeds, often used as rubbish dumps — this was the most commonly encountered appearance of such sites throughout the country. Only in several score localities are Jewish cemeteries the objects of constant care. The Hebrew language contains several expressions used to describe the concept of a cemetery: Bejt chaim — the house of life, Bejt olam — the house of eternity, or Der hajlike ort — the holy place. Their Polish counterparts are kirkut, kierkow or okopisko. One of the basic Biblical duties in Jewish religion and culture is that of burying the dead and respect for the burial site. The cemetery was, and is regarded as a venerated spot. The Judaic religion regards burial sites as a particular sacrum and has no concept of a liquidation of a cemetery. The first Jews in Upper Silesia and the later Dąbrowa Basin appeared at the beginning of the twelfth century and during the fourteenth century. The development of mining and industry in the first half of the nineteenth century, and the partially equal rights granted to the Jewish community in the Prussian state in 1812 made it possible to establish new kahals and generated an influx of Jews to particular towns and settlements. Heretofore findings place the number of historical cemeteries in the Katowice voivodeship at about 450, including 45 necropolises of the Mosaic faith, dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Some 95% of the historical necropolises are objects from the turn of the nineteenth century. Only 33 cemeteries contain extant gravestones, and the others were liquidated during the second world war and the 1960s and 1970s. The oldest necropolis in the voivodeship is the cemetery in Olkusz, founded in the second half of the sixteenth century (about 1584). Historical “houses of eternity” are found in Wielowieś, Mikołow, Kromołow, Chrzanow, Bieruń Stary and Będzin. Eleven cemeteries contain extant funeral houses. Only four out of a total of 33 Jewish cemeteries are listed in a register of historical monuments. On 18 July 1991, the Sejm passed an amendment to the law about cemeteries and the burial of the deceased, guaranteeing inviolability to cemeteries of all religions.

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1 Ochrona Zabytków

1 Walerjański D.

1 1998

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Cmentarze żydowskie w województwie katowickim : historia, stan zachowania, problemy ochrony