The history

In 1707, Kańczuga was inhabited by 12 Jewish families. Towards the mid-18th century, the slowly growing community already had its own synagogue. A total of 199 Jews lived in Kańczuga in 1785. There are no preserved documents suggesting that an independent kehilla operated in the town at the time.

The local Jewish population continued to grow in size in the 19th century. In 1870, the Kańczuga community had 726 members. It was probably in this period that a cemetery was established in the town. It was located in the fields of the village of Siedleczka, on a hill situated 300 m from the road leading to Dynów. It was the burial place of Jews from Kańczuga and the neighbouring villages, such as Białobok, Markowa, Manasterz, Zagórze, and Chmielnik.

The area was seized by the German troops in 1939. The occupier forbade Jews to place matzevot on graves. In the following years, the cemetery in Siedleczka was gradually devastated and used as an execution site by the Germans. During the liquidation of the local ghetto in August 1942, over 100 people were shot next to the cemetery and their bodies were buried at the site. After 1945, a monument was erected at the mass grave.

The Description

The cemetery covers an area of 0.44 hectare. It holds ca. 60 preserved tombstones (around 200 were recorded in 1990). These are predominantly traditional sandstone matzevot, most of them bearing faded, illegible inscriptions. The necropolis was included in the register of monuments under the number A-350, dated 05 February 1990.

In 2008, cleaning works were carried out at the cemetery on the initiative of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland and the Landsmanschaft of Jews of Kańczuga. The necropolis was also surrounded with a brick fence with a gate bearing information boards.

In 2019, Patryk Czerwony, who was born in Kańczuga and now lives in New York, organised an online fundraiser to clean up the cemetery. The money was donated to the Municipality of Kańczuga and was used to renovate the gate and the fence, cut the overgrowing vegetation, and remove dry branches lying around at the site.

Description copyright owner: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews