Mikolow Old Jewish Cemetery

The first records of Jewish residents in Mikołów date to the 17th century. After the town was added to Polish territories in 1922, most of the Jewish residents left. In 1931 there were 243 Jewish residents in Mikołów. In 1940, the Germans transported the local Jews to Sosnowiec, most of whom were killed in the Holocaust in the following years.

The oldest Jewish cemetery is located in the southeast part of town, on the southern side of Krakowska Street. In 1932 the cemetery’s location was described as: “on the right side of today’s road to Tychy, nearby today’s brickworks in Jakubowicz.” There is no information about the founding of the cemetery. Presumably, it was established in the 17th century, as indicated in a record by Marcus Brann on the burial of Moses (most likely Singer) on January 28th. The cemetery was in active use until the first decades of the following century, at which point the Jewish community established a new cemetery on (the contemporary) Stara Droga Street. At the beginning of the 20th century, the cemetery housed a lapidarium comprising two matzevot attached to a brick wall, one of which commemorated Chaja, daughter of Szmuel, who died March 7th ,1722. The plastic form of the second tombstone, the borders of which are unclear, indicated a founding date in the late 17th or the early 18th century.

At the end of the 1960’s, the cemetery became a part of Osiedle Słowackie. According to documentation in the Voivodeship Office of Katowice from 1989, the cemetery plot was taken over by Elementary School no. 10, built between 1985-1988. All aboveground traces of the cemetery were destroyed. There are no memorials, and the cemetery is not listed in the register of historical landmarks or the register of immovable monuments.

SOURCES:
– AAN, Ministerstwo Gospodarki Komunalnej, sygn. 9/30, Decyzje o zamknięciu i przeznaczeniu ich na inny cel w województwie katowickim.
– AP w Katowicach, Urząd Wojewódzki w Katowicach, sygn. 543/1/727, Nr 99 – Informacja dotycząca cmentarzy żydowskich na terenie województwa katowickiego.
– Mucha A., Mikołów [w:] Województwo śląskie. Cmentarze żydowskie. Weryfikacja zasobu wykonana przez Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa, red. M. Rymkiewicz, I. Kosyl, [kps] Warszawa 2018.
– Wodziński M., Hebrajskie inskrypcje na Śląsku XIII-XVIII wieku, Wrocław 1996.