Grybow Jewish Cemetery

The Grybów Jewish cemetery is located on a forested hill about 1,200 metres west of the market square and covers an area of 0.35 hectares. The cemetery was established in the second half of the 18th century. The are about 50 preserved tombstones in the cemetery which are made of stone and date back to the 19th and 20th centuries. Most of them were destroyed, but a few have survived in good condition. Inscriptions in Polish and Hebrew are visible on some of them. Jews from other nearby towns were also buried in the cemetery. One section of the cemetery is for soldiers who died in World War I.

Initially, there were 7 individual graves, now there are 4 matzevot, 2 of which are in good condition, with legible inscriptions. The matzevot are made of prefabricated concrete (typical for Jewish tombstones) with oval nameplates placed at the bottom, and a Star of David carved at the top. During the German occupation, the cemetery was desecrated by German soldiers who used the tombstones to pave the square in the brewery in Siołkowa. Some stelae were also used by locals as building material. On November 3, 2019, a monument was unveiled in the cemetery as part of the “People, Not Numbers” project with support from the Centrum Popiel Family Foundation. The names and surnames of the 1,774 people who were imprisoned in the Grybów Ghetto and subsequently murdered, are inscribed on the “Matzevah of Remembrance” monument. Currently, the cemetery is surrounded by a new steel fence. Previously, it was enclosed with a hawthorn hedge.

Grybów was founded under Magdeburg Law in 1340. The first information concerning Jewish settlement in Grybów and its vicinity dates to the mid-18th century. An independent Jewish community was established before 1870. In 1919, several anti-Semitic riots took place in the village carried out by local peasants and youth. At the beginning of the German occupation, Jews from nearby towns were relocated to Grybów. At the end of 1941, a ghetto was established in the village. It was liquidated on August 20, 1942. Some Jews were deported to Nowy Sącz, and others to Biała Niżna, where approximately 360 people were shot on the spot. Executions also took place at the Jewish cemetery in Grybów. Among others, about 150 old and sick people brought from Nowy Sącz were shot there.