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GORLICE |
Polish text | |
The Jewish cemetery in Gorlice was established in the second half of the 18th century on the hillside, at the present Stróżowska Street. During the 2nd World War the Nazis damaged the necropolis. The cemetery wall was then dismantled and tombstones were used to construct stairs in the Gestapo headquarters in the "Szklarczykówka" villa and to harden streets. The cemetery was also the place of numerous executions of people of Jewish and Rom nationalities. After the end of the war, in the years 1945 - 1960 the group of several rescued local Jews made attempts to arrange the necropolis. The recovered tombstones were transported back, some of them were subjected to renovation. The bodies of Jews who had been shot in different places of the region of Gorlice were exhumed and placed in a mass grave in the cemetery. A memorial commemorating the victims of Nazi repressions was erected in the area of the necropolis. However, the Gorlice Jews were gradually leaving their home shtetl. As time went by, the place where their close and relatives were buried was forgotten and deteriorated. The tombstones were stolen. After a part of tombs only their concrete bases remained. The cemetery was the place where cattle was pastured. Also the symbolic tomb put in the place of the execution of local Jews was devastated. The situation improved only in the half of the 90s. Then, thanks to the initiative of Paulina Bergman, whose roots are in Gorlice, and the cooperation of the Nissenbaum Family Foundation, the Eternal Remembrance Foundation and the town council, the necropolis area was fenced and arranged and a part of matzevot were placed. Also, the ohel where: Tzvi Hirsh Halbersztam, rabbi and tzaddik, chairman of rabbinical court, son of Baruch, died on 15 Av 5678 (24th July 1918); Baruch Halbersztam, son of Chaim Halbersztam - the famous founder of the Hasidic dynasty in Nowy Sącz, chairman of rabbinical court in Rudnik and Gorlice, died in Adar 5666 (February 1906) at the age of 76; Rabbi Pinchas, son of Jehoszua Eleazar, a descendant of Pinchas from Korc and a tzaddik from Kosovo, gaonim, maggid and dayan, died on 25 Shevat 5561 (14th Febr. 1901) were buried, was rebuilt. |
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In October 1995 the ceremony of handing over the renovated cemetery took place in Gorlice. In the ceremony participated: the delegation of the Jews from Gorlice, including already mentioned Paulina Bergman and Israel Noe Peterfreund; the representatives of the Nissenbaum Family Foundation with its president Zygmunt Nissenbaum, the representatives of the Eternal Remembrance Foundation, members of local authorities with Mayor Stanisław Szura. The Cracow rabbis said Kaddish and the catholic priests said a prayer for the deceased "Eternal rest". Although the cemetery is fenced, both gates are not closed. The key to the ohel can be obtained in the building nearby the cemetery (the person who makes the key available did not agree to publish the personal data on the Internet). |
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photos: Mieczysław Ochwat |
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| Photographs of the Gorlice Jewish Cemetery by Aleksandra Gucwa More photos by this author can be found on www.sekowa.info |
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| Stróżówka - the place of execution of Jews from Gorlice and Bobowa |
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One of the places of extermination of Jews from the Gorlice ghetto was the Garbacz forest in the town of Stróżówka. Władysław Baczoń in his book titled "Żydzi gorliccy" ("The Jews from Gorlice") describes the execution, which took place there on 14th Aug. 1942: "Terrible scenes took place there, the desperate screams of mothers whose children were being murdered were heard far away, although the dense forest muffled the sounds of the massacre. (....) The dead were kicked to an enormous hole (.....). The injured were finished off with rifle butts. Because old people had been murdered on the place and the people able to work had been transported in April to Płaszów, the Ukrainians and Germans fought a "knightly" battle with women and children." After the war the mass grave was created and a memorial was erected. The inscription on the memorial says: "In this mass grave about 700 Jews from Gorlice and Bobowa, the victims of the Nazi slaughter, who were brutally murdered on 14th August 1942, were buried. The creation of the grave and taking care of this saint place was possible thanks to Nuchym Ormianer and Jakub Peller, the Chairman of the County Jewish Committee". |
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photos: Mieczysław Ochwat |
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text: K. Bielawski |
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We look for any information about the Jews from Gorlice and their necropolis. We also wait for accounts of people who remember this cemetery from the time before the 2 nd World War. |
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The text and pictures are published by the services of www.kirkuty.xip.pl and are the property of the authors. To utilize this material it is necessary to obtain the written permission from the editor. |
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