Zabno Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
Jews began to settle in Żabno after 1692. A Hasidic dynasty was present in the town from the 19th century. In 1921, 730 Jews, who accounted for 29% of the total population, lived in the town, and most of them were killed by the Germans in Bełżec in 1942. The cemetery is located about 800 km north-east of the market square, at Cmentarna Street and Kościuszki Street, covering an irregularly shaped plot with an area of approximately 0.82 hectares.
The cemetery was established around 1692 after the Jewish community was granted the right by Łukasz Franciszek Jarand. In 1867, Rabbi Izrael Elimelech Unger of Żabno was buried in the cemetery as well as, in the following years, the subsequent leaders of the Hasidic dynasty he founded: Jakow Icchak Unger (died around 1892) and Szaloma Dawid Unger (died 1923). Before 1939, the cemetery was fenced with a wall and a wooden fence, with a gate made of iron bars and topped with the Star of David. At the entrance, there was a caretaker’s apartment and a funeral house. During World War II, the cemetery was a place for the execution of Jews and Roma. On September 15, 1942, the Germans shot a group of Jews in the cemetery and the victims were buried there.
The degradation of the cemetery began around this time and was through the following decades. On November 4, 1964, the Minister of Municipal Economy signed an order to close the cemetery. The accompanying documentation stated that the last burial took place in 1948, and the cemetery covers an area of 0.82 hectares. Around 1990, thanks to the efforts of Abraham Ladner, the cemetery was cleaned up and the ohel of the Unger family was rebuilt. In August 2004, thanks to the funds of Dorota Aronowitz, Genowefa Dombek, Mala Forst, and Anna Shore, a monument commemorating the victims of the Holocaust was unveiled. There are around several hundred tombstones in the cemetery and the area is fenced. The owner of the cemetery is the Jewish Community in Kraków. The cemetery is listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments of the Małopolskie Voivodeship.
