Ksiaz Wielki Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Lesser Poland Voivodeship
District
Miechów
Settlement
Książ Wielki
Site address
The cemetery is located about 50m behind 3, Szewska Street. The entrance to the site is from Szeroka Street.
GPS coordinates
50.4416409, 20.1376712
Perimeter length
370 meters
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
There is a metal fence about 1.7m high. The fence was installed by the Nissenbaum Family Foundation, however they did not install a gate.
Preservation condition
Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery
General site condition
It is a demolished Jewish cemetery, extremely overgrown, with no preserved tombstones. The perimeter is clear, because cemetery is fenced. There used to be an information plaque, however it is now damaged. There is a monument to the victims of the Holocaust in the cemetery.
Number of existing gravestones
No tombstones preserved
Date of oldest tombstone
N/A
Date of newest tombstone
N/A
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Other
Preserved construction on site
There is a monument to the victims of the Holocaust in the cemetery.
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

The first records of Jews in Książ Wielki date to the 18th century. 157 Jews lived in the town in 1783, 393 in 1827, and 852 in 1921 (49.7% of the total population). Most of Książ Wielki’s Jews were murdered in 1942 by the Germans in Treblinka. Until 1945, 11 Jews lived in Książ Wielki, though they soon left the village for security reasons.

The cemetery is located about 160 metres southwest of the market square, about 90 metres from the synagogue, on Szewska Street, and covers the irregularly shaped geodetic plot no. 766/8 with an area of 0.4479 hectares (ha). The cemetery was established around 1847. In 1859, there was a funeral house and a gravedigger’s apartment next to the area. At the beginning of the 20th century, the cemetery was fenced and, in 1935, the value of the cemetery and the funeral house was estimated at 6,000 zlotys. During World War II, the Germans shot and executed local Jews in the cemetery. The cemetery fell into disrepair around this time and continued to degrade through the following decades. On November 4, 1964, the Minister of Municipal Economy signed an order to close the cemetery. The accompanying documentation states that the cemetery covered a plot of 0.30 ha, and that the last burial took place in 1943. In the 1980’s, the cemetery was used as a pasture. There was also a pile of matzevot in the cemetery. Between 1987 and 1991, the Nissenbaum Family Foundation fenced the cemetery. In the cemetery, there is one matzevah dating to 1901, a modern monument commemorating the Lipman family and other victims of the Holocaust, and two metal information boards. The cemetery is enclosed by a partially destroyed fence made of metal spans on a concrete plinth. The area is overgrown with grass and deciduous trees. The cemetery is listed in the Provincial Register of Monuments.