Obj. ID: 50331
Jewish Funerary Art Jewish cemetery in Gniewoszów, Poland
According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the Jewish cemetery in Gniewoszów is located approximately 180 metres northwest of the town square, near Zacisze Street, and covers a trapezoid-shaped plot measuring approximately 0.5 hectares. The cemetery’s establishment date is unknown, though it is possible that the cemetery was established in the mid-18th century (the synagogue in Gniewoszów existed as early as 1748) and no later than the first half of the 19th century, as indicated by historical records of burial costs in a local registry in 1844. Before 1939, the cemetery was fenced. Presumably, the last burial took place in 1945, when the last five Jewish residents of Gniewoszów to survive the Holocaust were killed. During World War II, local residents began to destroy the area. Tombstones and parts of the wall were taken apart and used for construction purposes. All aboveground signs of the cemetery have since disappeared. The area was later used as pasture.
On June 22nd. 1964. the Minister for Local Economy—in accordance with the decree of the National Council Presidium of Gniewoszów from July 19th, 1957—signed a by-law commencing the closure of the cemetery. In 2014, thanks to the efforts of descendants of Gniewoszów Jews and the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, a partial fence was built. The borders of the cemetery in places that were not fenced were marked with stones. At one of the gate pillars, a memorial plaque was erected commemorating the local Jewish community. Several dozen recovered tombstones (list available at http://cmentarze-zydowskie.pl/gniewoszow.htm) were affixed to the wall. In 2019, another plaque was installed commemorating the victims of the 1945 killings. The cemetery is owned by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage. It is part of the local and voivodeship register of historical landmarks, but not the register of immovable monuments.
There is an information board, placed on the interior side of the cemetery wall, which marks the approximate place, where the victims of local post-war pogrom (1945) were buried. The cemetery is fenced with a concrete block wall (1-1.5 m high) with a metal gate with a star of David. The eastern border of the cemetery doesn’t have a fence. No tombstones have been preserved in situ. 13 fragments of tombstones are embedded into the northern cemetery wall near the entrance.
