Obj. ID: 52004
Jewish Funerary Art New Jewish cemetery in Pilica, Poland
According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the New Cemetery in Pilica was established in 1842. It was situated outside of the town, along the road to the village of Kocikowo. The place used to be called “The Blackwood Cemetery”.
Earlier, a preburial house with a dwelling for a janitor had been located there. The whole area had been fenced. During the Second World War, the Germans devastated the cemetery. In the years 1943-1944, they removed numerous tombstones and destroyed the pre-burial house. In 1942-1943, executions of Jews who had been hiding in the neighbouring villages took place in the cemetery. In 1945, the gendarmerie of Wolbrom shot 70 people from Pilica in the cemetery. On the area of 1 ha, 327 gravestones have been preserved. The area is fenced by a concrete wall with an iron entrance gate. In the State Archive in Kielce there is a drawing of a cemetery development and extension project, created in 1884 by Karol Czaplicki, an architect-engineer from Olkusz County.
There is an Ohel of Pinchas Eliasz, the son of Jakub Józef Rotenberg, a dayan from Pilica, and Hendel Lea, daughter of Abraham Mordechaj from Góra Kalwaria, wife of Pinchas Menachem Justman of Pilica.
The site has a concrete wall about 1.7 meters in height. There are about 300 gravestones.
