Skala Choleric Jewish Cemetery

In 1894, a cholera epidemic broke out in the Olkusz Poviat. It also reached Skała. Due to the sanitary risk, a separate cemetery was established. It was located approximately 2 km south of the town, in the area of the present-day Ojców National Park in Osicze. There are separate areas for Jews and Catholics in the cemetery. Currently, no tombstones have survived in the Jewish part of the cemetery. In 2005, both quarters were cleaned and fenced with a wooden fence by the Association of Skała Lovers. An information board was also erected in the cemetery. According to the board, the epidemic lasted 51 days and claimed the lives of about 50 people.

The first records of Skała date to the 13th century. In 1257–1259, Duke Bolesław V the Chaste reassigned Skała together with the surrounding land to the seat of the convent of Poor Clares. The town was founded in 1267. The first Jews appeared settled there at the end of the 18th century, despite the still valid De Non-Tolerandis Iudaeis privilege, which was only abolished in 1862. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the local Jews belonged to the Jewish community in Olkusz. In 1897, the community accounted for 417 people (17% of the total population). The first records regarding an independent Jewish community date to 1924. In 1937, 731 Jews lived in the village. By the spring of 1941, an open ghetto was established in Skała, in which between 1,500 to 3,000 Jews were gathered. In August 1942, some of them were deported to the Słomniki Ghetto, and then to the Bełżec extermination camp. The rest were murdered in the town or in local Jewish cemetery.