Obj. ID: 50222
Jewish Funerary Art  New Jewish cemetery in Olkusz, Poland

According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the cemetery is located about 900 metres northwest of the market square on Ołowiana Street and covers a rectangular plot with an approximate area of 0.57 hectares. The cemetery’s establishment date is unknown, though it was probably established no earlier than the mid-19th century. It was in use until the 1940s. One of the last people to be buried there was Róża Lender, who died in 1947. During World War II, the cemetery began to fall into disrepair. In 1946, the cemetery was severely devastated, and the Jewish Committee in Olkusz indicated the need to urgently repair the broken fence. In 1948, the City Council in Olkusz built a makeshift barbed wire fence. In the following years, the cemetery suffered further degradation. According to the decree on abandoned properties, the State Treasury became the owner of the cemetery. In 2010, restoration work was carried out in the cemetery. The area was cleaned up, some tombstones were placed upright, and a fence was built. There are about 200 tombstones in various conditions in the cemetery, most of which are overturned and do not mark the actual burial place. They date back to the first four decades of the 20th century. There are the ruins of the burial house next to the cemetery, and a fence made of a pre-war stone wall and prefabricated concrete slabs. The cemetery is listed in the Municipal and Provincial Register of Monuments.

There is a concrete fence about 1.8 m high. From one side it's fenced by a metal mesh fence about 1.7 m high. There are also the remains of an old fence inside the cemetery boundaries.

There are around 200 gravestones. The majority of them are damaged. Graffiti was found at the site.