They were allowed to build 10 houses in front of the Miedzyrzec gate on plots of land purchased from the town. The privilege allowed the trading of various goods, the production and sale of alcohol, as well as the killing of 5 oxen per year for personal consumption and 10 calves and sheep per quarter. The privilege also imposed obligations on Jews - observance of Catholic holidays, specific prohibitions on market days, as well as paying an annual fee for St. John to the parish priest in Babimost and for St. Martin to the starost of Babimost. In addition to the fees indicated in the document, they paid a poll tax in Polish - for every Jew from the age of one. Additional charges were foreseen in case of higher necessity.

Under Prussian rule, fee issues changed. The obligation to pay poll tax was restricted to ages 14 to 60, but the amount was increased to 10 guilders. On top of this, there was a marriage fee of 7 to 15 thalers. At that time, the Jews of Brójec were mainly engaged in the wool trade. Later, there were also many tailors and furriers among them.

Before 1800, near the Międzyrzecz Gate, at the fork of Kirchhofstraβe and Meseritzer Straβe (today Cmentarna and Poznańska Streets (Polish: ul. Cmentartna i Poznańska)), Jews built a half-timbered synagogue. A residential building now stands on the site (Poznańska Street 23 (Polish: ul. Poznańska 23)). A Jewish school was established in 1834. It was probably located next to the synagogue. In 1840, the Jewish community reached its most significant number; there were 209 Jews for every 1837 inhabitants. Before 1850, Jews built a mikvah in Brójce - a one-storey brick building covered with a gabled roof. It still stands today at 64 Poznańska Street (Polish: ul. Poznańska 64); after 1945, it was used as a residential building and is now abandoned.

The general trend of Jews escaping from small eastern towns in the province of Poznan to big cities in the west did not bypass Brójec as well. This led in 1889 to the dissolution of the community and the acquisition of its legates by the nearby community of Trzciel. The 1900 census in Brójce showed only one Jewish inhabitant, Rosalie Brunn. She was the daughter of the last rabbi.

During World War II, the Brätz prison camp was established north of the town. Initially, it housed Jews from the Łódź ghetto who worked on the construction of the motorway from Berlin to Poznań. Today, there is a commemorative stone on the former camp site, a monument and a mass grave of the victims at the municipal cemetery in Brójce.

Today, the Jewish cemetery is located outside the village of Brójce, north of it, by the road to Stary Dwór. From the centre of Brójec, cross country road 92, and after about 100m turn right into the car park by the municipal cemetery. The area of the cemetery is 0.30 ha.

The Description

The cemetery was probably founded with the arrival of Jews in Brójce (1738). It is located to the north of the communal cemetery fence. It is now completely overgrown with 30-40-year-old pine trees, planted presumably after the liquidation of the necropolis. The fieldstone foundation of the former cemetery wall survives in several sections. In the 1970s, matzevot from the Jewish cemetery was probably used to make the foundations of the fence next to the municipal cemetery. Today only one matzeva (displaced) and a few fragments of the others have survived. In 2014, at the entrance to the cemetery, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage unveiled a stone plaque with the inscription: "The Jewish cemetery in Brójce. To the memory of the Jews who rest here" (in Polish, Hebrew and German). A plaque was unveiled two years earlier.

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