Zator Jewish Cemetery

The first records of Jews in Zator date to the 15th century. In 1921, 436 Jews (21.9% of the total population) lived in the town, and 554 in 1931. In June 1942, the Germans deported the Jews of Zator to the Wadowice Ghetto and, a year later, murdered most of them in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. The cemetery is located about 650 metres southwest of the market square, on Słoneczna Street, and covers a rectangular plot of land. There is no information about its date of establishment. Based on the preserved tombstones, it can be assumed that the cemetery was established no later than 1864. Until 1882, Jews from Wadowice were buried in the cemetery as well. The gradual degradation of the cemetery presumably began during World War II and continued through the following decades. On November 4, 1964, the Minister of Municipal Economy, following a resolution of the Presidium of the Municipal National Council in Zator, signed an order to close the cemetery. The accompanying documentation describes the area of the cemetery (0.80 hectares (ha)), the number of plots (1,045), and the date of the last burial (1942). An area of 0.28 ha in the cemetery is surrounded by a modern (built after 1984) fence made of prefabricated concrete material. Within it, there are about 100 tombstones in various conditions, in the form of stelae and obelisks, made of sandstone and granite (a partial list is available at http://cmentarza-zydowskie.pl/zator.htm). In 2018, the cemetery was cleaned at the initiative of Jewish immigrants from Zator.

The matter of the ownership of the cemetery is being examined by the Regulatory Commission for Jewish Religious Communities. The facility is listed in the Municipal and Provincial Register of Monuments.