Wschowa Jewish Cemetery

The cemetery became one of the finest Jewish necropolises in the area. It is also the resting place of Wschowa’s many eminent Jews, like rabbi Abarbanell and Marcus Grohs, the last rabbi in Wschowa. Numerous ancestors of a doctor Leo Baeck and a professor Hermann Cohen were buried there. Among them lies Gerson Koswig. The last burial dates back to the year 1940. World War II did not affect the cemetery in any significant way. On 9 May 1972 the National County Council in Wschowa decided to close the historical necropolis. The wall and adjacent buildings were pulled down and the matzevot were reused to pave Targowa Street. There is currently an unofficial playground where the cemetery used to be; previously the ground served as a football field. [see pictures No. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20] At the old cemetery’s entrance there is a plaque with an inscription in Polish and German: A commemorative plaque marking the localization of the Jewish cemetery founded in 1765, in use till 1940.