Effectively, Jews were banned from settling in the city.

Modern Jewish settlement began after the emancipation edict of 1812.

On September 26, 1847, an independent Jewish community was established. It was headed by merchant Dawid Glogauer. In 1872, the Union of Upper Silesian Synagogue Communities was established, which included the non-Modlin Jewish community. In 1880, the size of the local Jewish community reached its maximum. The 1890 census gives the number of 84 Jews.

At the turn of the 20th century, however, the community virtually ceased to exist due to emigration to larger centres. In 1925, there were only 3 Jews left in the town, and on 28 April 1928, the Synagogue Community in Niemodlin was liquidated, and its assets were transferred to the community in Opole.

The Nazi census of May 1939 showed 1 Jewish woman and 4 people of partial Jewish descent in the town. The last remaining Jewish woman in Niemodlin was taken to the Theresienstadt ghetto via Opole in December 1942.

The Description

The cemetery of the Jewish religious community in Niemodlin was founded in 1823. It was one of the smallest Jewish burial sites in Upper Silesia. Located on a triangular plot with an original area of 28.60 acres, it was founded on the land belonging to the erstwhile suburban village of Wesele, on the eastern side of the road to Nysa (today’s Bohaterów Powstań Śląskich Street).

Until March 1823, the local Jews buried their dead in the cemetery in Biała. The first person laid to rest at the newly established necropolis was merchant Moses Jacob Stiebel, who died in Niemodlin on 26 May 1823 at the age of 30. The Niemodlin cemetery was also used by Jews living in the village of Lipowa. It is estimated that no more than 100 people were buried at the site. The last burial was that of Dr Max Boss, a sanitary supervisor who died on 22 December 1925 at the age of 64.

It has been impossible to establish the exact date of the construction of the pre-burial house (still existing today) in the northern part of the cemetery. However, a building of some sort certainly already existed in that location in 1877. The design of the brick fence with wrought-iron spans surrounding the site also suggests that it was put up at the turn of the 20th century.

On 28 April 1928, after the Niemodlin Jewish community was dissolved, the cemetery became property of the kehilla in Opole. The new owners tried to keep the site in a good condition the best of their abilities. They employed a caretaker who lived in the residential quarters located in the pre-burial house. On 4 July 1939, the necropolis became property of the Association of Jews in Germany, represented by the local office in Gliwice. On 10 June 1943, the cemetery was seized by the Gestapo and placed under the administration of the district tax office.

At the beginning of World War II, the cemetery was used to bury Polish Catholics prisoners of war who had died in the local lazarette. Their bodies were later exhumed and replaced with the remains of Jewish POWs. Until August 1941, no acts of vandalism had been recorded at the site. The only damage was caused by a tree brought down by a storm.

On 3 April 1940, the vacant part of the cemetery – 24.80 acres, almost 87% of its area – was sold for 300 marks to train driver Hermann Schulter and his wife Paulina née Hoch from Wesoła, who had already been leasing it. In mid-August of the following year, Schulter made a proposal to buy the further part of the cemetery plot together with the buildings, with the sole exception of the section where the graves were located. No compromise was reached in the initial negotiations of the price. The owners of the cemetery believed that the appraised value of the pre-burial house was largely underestimated. They also feared that the new owners would evict the Politze sisters, daughters of the previous caretaker, who were looking after the cemetery for a small fee after his death. In May 1942, it was finally decided to hold off on the sale. Ultimately, the cemetery survived virtually intact until 1945.

After World War II, the cemetery was left unattended and gradually deteriorated, partially destroyed by human hand. No gravestones remain on the premises. At the beginning of the 20th century, several grave frames could still be noticed. However, a fragment of the fence has been preserved, as well as the pre-burial house, although it has been quite peculiarly – to put it mildly – remodelled by the new owner of the plot, together with the entire cemetery area.

Author of the note: Sławomir Pastuszka

Właściciel praw autorskich do opisu: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN.