However, there is no evidence that they lived in the town itself in the following years. It is more likely that they settled and leased land outside Radomyśl.

The situation changed in the 18th century. According to available sources, 302 Jews lived in Radomyśl in 1765. Data from 1779, meanwhile, shows that the town was inhabited by 85 Jewish and 217 Christian families residing in 170 houses. An official Jewish community was probably founded in the early 19th century. At that time, Jews lived in the northeastern part of the Market Square. The synagogue was erected in the same area, at Rudzka Street (now Armii Krajowej Street), with a cheder and mikveh located nearby.

The description

The first Jewish cemetery was opened a bit farther away from the Jewish quarter. The exact date of its establishment is unknown. The necropolis was destroyed during World War II and no tombstones survived the occupation. After the war, the entire cemetery area was developed with buildings.

Ca. 1850, the Austrian authorities introduced new sanitary regulations according to which burial sites were to be located beyond town limits. As a consequence, the Jewish community of Radomyśl decided to establish a second Jewish cemetery. It was located outside the town, in Kąty, by the road to Dąbrówka Wisłocka. The site is currently situated ca. 1,300 m east of the Market Square and can be accessed via Targowa Street. The plot housing the necropolis has the registration number 813/1.

During World War II, the Germans carried out executions in the cemetery. The largest mass murder took place on 19 July 1942, when ca. 500 Jews from the Radom Ghetto were shot at the site. The bodies of the victims were buried in mass graves. The necropolis itself suffered a fate similar to most other Jewish cemeteries. It was vandalised by the Germans, who smashed matzevot with hammers and used them as building material in construction works on the roads to Dulcza Wielka and Ruda. The site continued to fall into decline after 1945.

Ca. 60 tombstones in varying states of preservation have survived on an area of 1.3 hectare. Many are invisible, hidden in bushes or covered by a layer of turf. The oldest recorded matzeva commemorates Efraim Fiszel, who died in 1817; it was probably moved to the site from the old cemetery. Next to it there are tombstones from the years 1851 and 1862. The cemetery grounds are unfenced and the area is overgrown with trees and bushes.

In 1987, a memorial commemorating the Jews murdered at the cemetery on 19 July 1942 was erected on the initiative of the Society of Friends of Radomyśl Land (Polish: Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Ziemi Radomyskiej). A preserved beam originally forming part of the local synagogue was placed at the monument.

The cemetery was entered into the register of monuments under the number A-1156, dated 12 December 1989. An information board has been placed at the entrance.

In 2005 and 2006, cleaning works at the cemetery were carried out by students from the local School Complex as part of the “To Bring Back Memory” project of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland.

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