Obj. ID: 50257
Jewish Funerary Art  Jewish cemetery in Ołpiny, Poland

According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the cemetery covers a plot beneath a hill on the north-south axis, shaped like an elongated rectangle. The cemetery’s establishment date is unknown, though it was likely established in the 19th century, simultaneous to the development of the local Jewish community. Within the cemetery there is the War Cemetery No. 35, established during World War I by the Military Department of War Cemeteries C. and K. in Kraków. Four soldiers of the Russian Army (Izaak Korgelow, who died on May 7, 1915, and three unidentified soldiers) and two soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Army (Abraham Klinghofer and one unidentified soldier) are buried there. In 1917, a trial was held in Jasło against the shepherds Józef S. and Zygmunt S., who knocked over some tombstones in the Ołpiny cemetery, and painted crosses with feces and charcoal on other tombstones.

The devastation of the cemetery began during World War II and some inhabitants of Ołpiny participated in its decay. The tombstones were used for construction. Almost all above-ground traces of the cemetery vanished. In recent years, local community activists have moved more than a dozen tombstones in various conditions found in Ołpiny to the cemetery. Since 2015, the cemetery has been managed by the AntySchematy 2 Foundation, which has restored tombstones from the war quarters and conducted educational activities for students from the local school. The cemetery is listed in the Municipal and Provincial Register of Monuments and it is not listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments.

The area is not fenced or marked as a Jewish cemetery. There are almost no traces of the existence of the cemetery. The area is very overgrown and largely inaccessible. ESJF surveyors found the remains of one tombstone in the cemetery. The date was not legible.

The cemetery location: 

In overgrown fields, about 1.5 km south-east of the centre of the village, 500m south behind War Cemetery no. 34. From the south, the cemetery borders on the remains of War Cemetery no. 35. From the Kościół Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny (Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in the centre of Ołpiny, drive south-west for about 2.2 km, then continue about 1.6 km towards the east. The cemetery is to the north from the road.