Bobowa Jewish Cemetery

Jews first settled in Bobowa after 1732. In the 19th century, the town became a centre for Hasidic activity. In 1921, 565 Jews lived in Bobowa (39.7% of the entire population), most of whom were murdered by the Germans in 1942 in Bełżec. The cemetery is located about 800 metres southwest of the market square, on a hill at Wichrowa Street. It is an irregularly shaped plot with an area of approximately 0.74 hectares. The cemetery was likely established in the 18th century and served as the burial place for people from Bobowa and the surrounding towns. In 1905, Szlomo Halberstam—the first Bobover Rebbe—was buried there. During World War I, War Cemetery No. 132 was established within the cemetery, where 7 Jewish soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army, who died between 1914-1915, were buried. During World War II, the cemetery became a place for executions, and people murdered in and around Bobowa were buried there as well. One such execution took place on January 5, 1942, when the Germans shot a group of about 17 people. Another 30 people were killed on March 4, 1942. The gradual decay of the cemetery likely began during World War II and progressed through the following decades.

On December 8, 1961, the Minister of Municipal Economy signed an order to close the cemetery. In the period of the Polish People’s Republic, the grave of Holocaust victims was commemorated and the ohel was rebuilt. In 1988, the Nissenbaum Family Foundation cleaned up and fenced the cemetery, erecting a monument at the mass grave. There are no less than 200 tombstones in the cemetery, a modern ohel for Szlomo Halberstam and his son-in-law Chaim Jakow Teitelbaum, and monuments commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. The area is fenced, and cleaning is periodically carried out and vegetation is cut down in the main parts of the cemetery (the entrance, the ohel’s surroundings, the collective grave, and the soldiers’ quarters). The owner of the cemetery is the Jewish Community in Krakow. The facility is listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments of the Małopolskie Voivodeship.