The earliest mention attesting their presence dates from 1433, another from 1469. The municipality was founded in the 15th century, or, more likely, in the early 16th century, according to communal records kept as late as the mid-19th century.

In 1622, community members lived in a separate Jewish quarter inside the city walls. In 1674, 37 people lived there (6.9% of the total population), in 1676 - 25. The development of the community was fostered by a privilege granted to Koźmin Jews by the town owner Jan Kazimierz Sapieha in 1715. It confirmed the right to conduct business and permitted the establishment of a cemetery, the construction of a synagogue, a ritual bath, a house for the rabbi and a teacher. However, a fire on 9 and 10 September 1797 consumed much of the Jewish quarter. Fourteen of the 16 Jewish houses and outbuildings were destroyed. The element plunged the local community, which was already facing severe financial problems. It was heavily indebted to, among others, the church in Koźmin, Dobrzyca and Radlin. The dues were still paid at the end of 1858.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, most Jews lived on Szkolna and Przejemskie Streets (Polish: ul. Szkolna and Przejemskie). In 1793, about 300 people lived there (about 20% of the population), in 1812 - 390 (19.1%), in 1820. - 471 (19.3%), in 1840 - 722 (22.1%), in 1850 - 738 (21.4%), in 1856 - 863 (25.7%). The last count was the highest ever. The second half of the 19th century was the best period in the community's history. The wooden synagogue from 1745 was replaced by a brick one, built in 1870-1871. The new synagogue was a magnificent edifice with a bulbous tower; it was not demolished until 1974. The borough then began to decline, although it was still quite large for decades. In 1869, it had 665 Jews (17.6%) in 1877. - 589 (14.4%), in 1885. - 458 (10.8%), in 1905. - 312 (6.5%), in 1914. - 270.

Since the Old Polish times, a Jewish school (cheder), also called a folk school (Volksschule), was operating in Koźmin. Between 1792 and 1812, the community maintained it, along with a full-time position for one teacher. Abraham Lippman held this position in 1805, and then: Herzberg, Hirschberg, Wolf Flatow, Levy, Vornstein, Götz. With demographic changes, the number of pupils evolved, e.g. 1834 there were 187 students, in 1908 - 15. Next to the Volksschule, there was a Hebrew school with 30 students. In addition, in 1872, the local rabbi Dr Adolf Lewin established the Municipal High School (Städtischehöhere Schule), where he conducted religious instruction for four hours a week.

In the 19th century, the municipality was distinguished by its considerable organisational activity, which consisted of several charitable, cultural, educational and religious associations. These ranged from brotherhoods steeped in tradition, such as the Chevra Kadisha (funeral), Bikur Cholim (for the benefit of the poor), Ner Tamid (for the benefit of the synagogue) and Hachnasat Orchim (care for passers-by), to the somewhat more recent Women's Association (Frauenverein), Ladies' Association (Jungfrauenverein) and the Association for Dressing Poor Children (Polish: Stowarzyszenie Ubierania Biednych Dzieci) (Chewra zur Bekleidung armen Kinder). Local rabbis patronised them, among others: Jakob Silber (ca. 1800, rabbi in Koźmin for 37 years), Moses Eisig Fränkel (d. 1817), Jehuda Leib aka Schamschon Blaschke (1818-1830), Salomon Meir Radt (1830-1867), Kaufman Ehlich (1868-1871), Dr. Adolf Lewin (1872-1878), Dr. Leopold Treitel (1878-1881), Dr. Oskar Bähr (1883-1885), Dr. Aron Heppner (1890-1920).

After the great wave of emigration to Germany at the beginning of the 1920s, the municipality slowly died off during the interwar period. There was no rabbi, and cantor Ehiel carried out the ritual slaughter in parallel (in the 1930s, he also commuted to the Jewish community in Ostrów Wielkopolski). In 1923, there were 48 Jews (0.9%) in Koźmin, in 1930 - 43, in 1939. - 33. Despite this, the community, whose boundaries overlapped with the city, continued to maintain the synagogue with the synagogue servant's dwelling house, the school building where the cantor lived, and the cemetery with the gravedigger's dwelling house. In 1932, it was finally subordinated to the Jewish community in Ostrów Wielkopolski, together with other communities from the districts of Ostrów, Kępno and Krotoszyn. After the outbreak of World War II in November 1939, all local Jews were arrested by the Germans and deported to Łódź. Nathan Mośkiewicz, who died in Koźmin in 1969, survived the Holocaust with his son Hugon.

The Jewish cemetery in Koźmin is one of the largest and best-preserved Jewish necropolises in Greater Poland. Its establishment was made possible by the owner of the town, Kazimierz Nestor Sapieha, who donated the land in the forest Koszewiec in the vicinity of Orla in the late 18th century. The necropolis is located north-west of Orla (commune of Koźmin Wielkopolski), east of Koźmin Wielkopolski, on Wierzbowa Street (Polish: ul. Wierzbowa) (Orliński Forest). It covers an area of 0.5206 ha (plot 261/1). In 1872, after the exhumation from the older cemetery, which had been liquidated, the remains of those buried were transferred to it and placed in a mass grave no. 446 with the date 17 Siwan 5629 (1869). In the third or fourth quarter of the 19th century, a brick gravedigger's house (now a private dwelling) was built on the south side. Earlier, a wooden pre-burial house was built on the west side (demolished in the 1950s).  

During World War II, the necropolis was partially devastated. Lamps, metal objects (medallions, chains, plaques) were taken. Some of the matzevot were toppled, but the Germans did not implement the decision to liquidate the necropolis. In the 1990s, on the initiative of Jerzy Fornalik (a teacher in Borzęciczki), the area was cleaned up, and a new openwork fence was built. An inventory carried out in the cemetery in August 2020 by the Crocodile Association uncovered 511 burial sites, located at 373 tombstones, of which 119 have been published. The oldest one dates back to 1801, the oldest matzeva from 1806 commemorates the burial of Yehuda, the youngest one from 1969 commemorates the burial of Nathan Moskiewicz (the only burial after World War II).

The Description

The cemetery is laid out on a roughly rectangular plan, measuring 80 x 70 m. It is surrounded by a former ditch on three sides, except for the border with the farmyard of the former gravedigger's house. A new metal entrance gate symbolising a menorah was located in the southeast corner. The tombstones are arranged compactly in rows (especially those from the end of the 19th century), close to each other. Only in the children's section of the north-eastern section is the position of the tombstones free, but within a specific order. The height of the gravestones varies from a few dozen centimetres (children's gravestones) to about 160-170 centimetres. Most of the matzevot are made of sandstone. The oldest ones seem modest, although they contain many inscriptions and ornaments; their inscriptions are in Hebrew. From the 1830s, richer ornamentation appeared, and more and more often, apart from Hebrew, information about the deceased's details, date of birth, and death started to be added in German in the inscriptions. Over time, the Hebrew text is marginalised in favour of the German text, and some inscriptions are only in German. In addition to sandstone, new materials in white marble and black granite also began to be used. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, classicist models from Christian cemeteries were referred to in several cases as a stylised portico with columns and tympanum or a broken column. A separate group is stylised sarcophagi with inscriptions in German. Rabbis Solomon ben Meir Radt and Dr David Gerson, Hebraist Isaac Goldbaum, Talmudists Abraham Lippman and Mordechai Beiser, teacher Abraham Silberstein, community presidents Abraham Mathias and Abraham Horwitz were buried in the cemetery.

On 18 May 2011, the cemetery was entered in the register of monuments by the Wielkopolska Provincial Monument Conservator in Poznań (No. 838/Wlkp/A).

References

• State Archive in Kalisz, District Starosty in Koźmin 1918-1931 (SPK), ref. no. 33, 38.
• State Archive in Kalisz, District Starosty in Ostrów Wielkopolski 1919-1939, ref. no. 63;
• Z. Guldon, Skupiska żydowskie w miastach polskich w XV-XVI wieku, [in:] Żydzi i judaizm we współczesnych badaniach polskich, vol. II, Kraków 2000.
• Z. Guldon, J. Wijaczka, Osadnictwo żydowskie w województwach poznańskim i kaliskim w XVI-XVII wieku, "Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego" 1992, no. 2-3.
• Heppner, A. Herzberg, Aus Verganheit und Gegenwart der Juden und der jüdischen Gemeinden in den Posener Landen, Koschmin – Bromberg 1904–1909.
• T. Kawski, Inwentarze gmin żydowskich z terenu centralnej i zachodniej Polski w okresie międzywojennym (1918-1939), part 1, "Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej" 2008, no. 1.
• S. Łukomski, Koźmin Wielki i Nowy. Monografia historyczna, Poznań 1914.
• M. Ratajczyk, Cmentarz żydowski w Koźminie Wielkopolskim, Jewish WLKP [online:] https://jewishwlkp.pl/cmentarz-zydowski-w-kozminie-wielkopolskim/  [accessed: 31/12/2021]
• A. Skupień, Ludność żydowska w województwie poznańskim w latach 1919-1938, Poznań 2007.
• Statistische Varstellung des Kreises Krotoschin mit Nachträgen für die Zeit von 1864 bis 1867, Krotoschin (n.d.w).
• J. Wawrzyńczak, Kronika miasta Koźmin, Poznań 1959.

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