In 1820, a total of 12 Jews lived in the villages of Zabrze and Małe Zabrze. In 1840, there were 20 Jews living in Mikulczyce, 15 in Little Zabrze, and nine in Old Zabrze. In 1861, there were already 297 Jews living in what is now Zabrze. The largest population, with 122 people, was in Little Zabrze.

In 1865, a branch municipality of Zabrze, which was dependent on the municipality of Bytom, was established and, at the time of its establishment, 119 Jews from Biskupice, Mikulczyce, Zaborze, Zabrze, Rokitnica and Poręba belonged to it.

In the years 1871-1872, a free-standing synagogue was erected, and the ceremony of putting it into service took place on 2 April 1873.

On 1 January 1872, an independent synagogue community was established in Zabrze, which included: Biskupice (61 people), Dorota (11 people), Małe Zabrze (285 people), Mikulczyce (42 people), Stare Zabrze (143 people) and Zaborze (189 people).

Zabrze was such an attractive center that it was not affected by the mass migration of Upper Silesian Jews at the turn of the 20th century; rather, it itself became a destination for removals. In 1885, the local Jewish community had 1,013 members.

In 1901, 1,165 Jews lived in the area of present-day Zabrze and in 1931 - , 1,200 Jews lived in the town (1% of the total population).

The community's crisis was brought not until Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, and especially the time after the expiration of the Polish-German Convention of July 15, 1937, which resulted in the extension to Upper Silesia of all anti-Semitic laws passed in the Third Reich, including the so-called Nuremberg Laws. In the autumn of 1938, there were 740 German Jews and 44 Jews with foreign citizenship living in Zabrze.

During the so-called Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938, local nazis burned down a synagogue and vandalized numerous properties. These events intensified the emigration of the Jewish population. In May 1942, the Germans carried out a large-scale deportation of Silesian Jews to the German Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Theresienstadt. The Jews of Zabrze were then included in the "death transports" headed for the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

After the end of the Second World War, Zabrze was one of the cities in Upper Silesia where Polish Jews began to settle down. In the summer of 1945, the Jewish Committee was established.  In the period from 1946 to 1949, the Jewish population of Zabrze declined from 819 to 314. In the middle of 1950, the Jewish Committee was liquidated. The Jewish population that remained in the town came under the authority of the Congregation of the Mosaic Faith (Polish: Kongregacja Wyznania Mojżeszowego) and the Gliwice branch of the Social and Cultural Association of Jews.

The Description

The cemetery was established even before the establishment of the municipality, and the land for the creation of the cemetery - located on the site of the former 18th-century castle colony - was a gift of Guido Heckel von Donnersmarck in 1871. The first burials took place that same year, right after Rosh Hashanah. The first person buried in the cemetery was twelve-day-old Arthur Ritter, who died on 18 September 1871 in Zaborze, and the first adult was Helene Schüller, née Ehrenhaus, who died on 8 November 1871 in Zabrze.

The necropolis was located to the west of the village, in the area of Małe Zabrze, at present-day Cmentarna Street. A funeral home was erected on the western side, right next to the street, the cost of building the facility was 850 thalers. In 1892, the building was developed thanks to the generosity of Max Böhm, and a section with a room for the caretaker-gardener and utility rooms were added. Between 1894 and 1895, the burial space was expanded and the size of the necropolis was 1.5 ha.

Around 700 people were laid to rest in the cemetery and regular burials still took place at the cemetery in the first half of 1942. Most likely, the last person buried at that time was Cäcilie Heymann née Schein, who died on 13 April 1942 at the age of 63. Also, during the Second World War, prisoners of the labour camp that operated on the premises of the Donnersmarck Steelworks in Zabrze were buried in a mass grave in the cemetery.

On 4 July 1939, the owner of the necropolis became the Association of Jews in Germany. Attempts were made to sell it, which for a long time made it difficult to determine the real value of the property. On 10 June 1943, the site was seized by the Gestapo and placed under the administration of the district tax office. It survived in a good condition until 1945.

After the end of World War II, the cemetery began to be used again for burial purposes. The last funeral took place in 1954. More than 700 tombstones have been preserved, including row and family tombs, a section of the fence and an old-growth tree.

Author of the note: Sławomir Pastuszka

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