Slomniki Jewish Cemetery

The Słomniki Jewish cemetery is located about 900 metres southeast of the market square, on the eastern side of Niecała Street, among the Niedźwiedzkie Meadows and covers rectangular plot no. 1209 with an area of 0.4081 hectares. The cemetery was established in 1898 and was in use until World War II. An unknown amount of people who were murdered by the Germans during the deportation of Jews from Słomniki and nearby towns between August 28 – September 2, 1942, are buried there. The cemetery was devasted around this time. On November 4, 1964, the Minister of Municipal Economy signed an order to close the cemetery. In the 1960s a monument was erected on the mass grave of the victims of the Holocaust. In 1998-1999, the Nissenbaum Family Foundation, the Association of Jews from Słomniczów in Israel, and the Town Hall cleaned up and fenced the cemetery, and monuments to the victims of the Holocaust were erected. In 2020, at the initiative of Maria Górowska, the cemetery was cleaned up by local volunteers. As a result of the destruction within the cemetery, the pre-war tombstones have not survived. At the entrance, there are four stelae made of black granite with engraved names of Słomnica Jews that were placed there in 1998. In the eastern part of the cemetery, there is a sandstone rock block surrounded by an iron fence, with a granite plaque with the inscription: “In memory of Jews murdered by the Nazis in August 1942. TNCBH”. Single destroyed matzevot, excavated from the Słomniki market in 2014, are preserved in the Słomniki Land Museum. The owner of the cemetery is the Jewish Community in Krakow. The property is listed in the Municipal Register of Monuments.

The first recorded mention of individual Jews living in Słomniki dates to the 16th century, though Jewish settlement only began to significantly develop after 1863. In 1921, 1,460 Jews lived in the town (30.4% of the total population), most of whom were killed by the Germans in Bełżec in 1942.