Cemetery
Heritage Sites – Cemeteries
Polska / małopolskie
The Jewish cemetery in Wadowice is located at the end of Tomicka Street, the last crossroad to Wojska Polskiego Street leading from Wadowice to Tomice. Situated beyond the railway tracks, the cemetery is perpendicular to the road and can be accessed through a gateway in a building, in which there was once a caretaker’s two-bedroom apartment to the left (view to the entrance), now abandoned, and a room for the use of the Chewra Kadisha to the right, used as a utility room by cemetery caretakers (who lived on Tomicka Street).
The cemetery belonging to the Wadowice kehilla was established relatively late and the first dead from Wadowice were buried in a cemetery in Zator. In 1882, the kehilla purchased a parcel situated near the border with Tomice. From that point onward, the Jews of Wadowice had their own cemetery and could terminate the agreement with the Zator kehilla. It took over a dozen years to arrange the necropolis, its ground was leveled and it was expanded by adding another parcel as early as the 20th century. Bet Tahara[1.1], with an apartment for a cemetery caretaker, was also opened. Then, a wall was provided around the entire cemetery area. The Chewra Kadisha brotherhood dealt with all the works related to burials and the arrangement of the cemetery. Eliezer Ciechanowski was its longtime chairman, and in the last years of the existence of the kehilla, the brotherhood’s members included : Eliezer Bienenstock, Anszil Berger, Jakub Burta, Chaim Cisner, Tobiasz Einhorn, Ozjasz Gertel, Jehuda Gottlieb, Szmuel Kaufman, Dawid Kluger, Leobel Orbach, Michał Petzenbaum, Mosze Sturm, Menachem Mendel Schoengut, Mosze Ruebner, Bernard Wachsman, Róża Bałamuth, Baila Einhorn, Chawa Grubner, Rywka Goldberg, Jetti Neuhart, Lieba Rapaport[1.2].
Towards the end of the 19th century, the burial charge set by the religious Council was 100 zlotys[1.3].
Apart from the kehilla inhabitants, the Jewish soldiers from a garrison stationing in Wadowice, many of whom died during a typhus epidemic at the time of World War I, were also buried in the Wadowice cemetery. In the case of the death of a Jewish soldier, it was an obligation on the part of the military authorities to notify the Chewra Kadisha[1.4], whose members came to a military hospital to give the dead last service in accordance with his religion.
The first war victim to rest in this cemetery was a man accused of espionage and killed by the Nazis a day after they entered the town. His identity is not known. Another victim, a soldier killed in the battles of Chocznia, was exhumed from a Catholic cemetery in which he was mistakenly buried[1.5]. Following the creation of a ghetto, the families of people who died within its limits were not allowed to walk their relatives to the cemetery because it was outside the area allocated to the Jews. Only a limited number of the Chewra Kadisha’s members had permission to leave the ghetto to take care of a funeral.
The Jewish cemetery survived the war without any major damage because the Nazis authorities sold the territory along with the tombstones to an entrepreneur of unknown name from Munich. Towards the end of the war, he came to Wadowice together with his son to take measures and make a list of the matzevot, which they even knocked over with a view of taking them to Germany. Following the war, the entrepreneur sent a letter in which he asked the cemetery caretaker to look after his property until his arrival[1.6].
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[1.1] Bet Tahara (literal meaning House of Purification), a pre-burial house situated at the entrance to the cemetery, in which the dead bodies were washed and prepared to be buried. The house had also rooms for gravediggers and a caretaker.
[1.2] Jakubowicz, Dawid. Księga pamiątkowa gmin żydowskich Wadowic, Andrychowa, Kalwarii i Myślenic, ed. D. Jakubowicz, Tel Aviv 1968, p. 26.
[1.3] Statut Izraelickiej Gminy Wyznaniowej w Wadowicach, Article 11, p. 41.
[1.4] Chewra Kadisha (literal meaning Holy Brotherhood), a funeral brotherhood, which disinterestedly took care of the dying members of the community. Their duties included keeping vigil by the dying, ensuring proper preparation and proper conducting of funerals, as well as taking care of the family’s closest members during the mourning period. Membership in the brotherhood was a great honor.
[1.5] Jakubowicz, Dawid. Księga pamiątkowa gmin żydowskich Wadowic, Andrychowa, Kalwarii i Myślenic, ed. D. Jakubowicz, Tel Aviv 1968, p. 106.
[1.6] Jakubowicz, Dawid. Księga pamiątkowa gmin żydowskich Wadowic, Andrychowa, Kalwarii i Myślenic, ed. D. Jakubowicz, Tel Aviv 1968, p. 27.
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