Alternate name: Bahn [Ger]. 53°06' N 14°39' E, 272.1 miles WNW of Warszawa, 13 mi SE of Gryfino and 22 mi S of the regional capital Szczecin. Banie is a village in Gryfino, West Pomeranian Voivodeship in NW Poland and the seat of the gmina (administrative district). Before 1945 the area was part of Germany (Pomerania). The village has a population of 2,000. Classified a city from 1235 until 1945, but the war devastation of war was so great that Banie lost its status. First owned by the Knights Templar who built beautiful granite church in the eighteenth century and the defensive walls, the Jewish community probably lived in Baniach from the Middle Ages. The first recorded resident was Jacob, Samuel, TEWES. In 1691, Jacob and Samuel Linde Franz were recorded. In the eighteenth century merchant John Samuel ran in the Mehlis Baniach Manufaktura producing straw hats sold even on the Berlin market. 1812 Jewish population was 51 out of 1,069. 1861 population was 2,651 with 96 Jews. 1938 population: only seven Jews. Older residents recall that all the Jews managed to escape the Nazis with the exception of one, a road worker murdered in an extermination camp. [March 2009]
US Commission No. POCE000193: The US Commission is not finished rechecking this file [2000].
CEMETERY: A stone protrudes from the grass (matzevot base) that covers the graves. Once the cemetery was surrounded with a granite wall that today is hidden in dense thicket. According to local (German) residents of Bani (formerly Bahn/Pommern), the cemetery was devastated by the Nazis in the 1930s. After the war, with no one was left to care for the site, local authorities finished devastating the cemetery by taking the gravestones to use for other purposes. In the 1960s, a dozen matzevot remined. Recently, the cemetery was very overgrown, but its location protected it. In September 2007, the new municipal authoritiesdecided to clean the cemetery area and prevent further devastation. Clearing trees and shrubs came first. Jesionowa avenue leading to the cemetery was cleaned and paved. Exposed gravestones fragments, and above all, the oldest granite matzevot from 1741 with an inscription in Hebrew was preserved in its entirety and dated by the Provincial Conservator of Monuments. From the second day of cleaning the Jewish cemetery,two beautifully preserved matzevot with Hebrew inscription were found. Additionally, besides the two a concrete gravestone with a German inscription was found in its entirety as were the remains of several sandstone matzevot. A sign in Polish, English and German sayst: "Kirkut. Banska Jewish Cemetery was founded in year 1741, destroyed in the days of the Nazi regime in World War II, forgotten by God and man ... Here the deceased's dream for many centuries past series[?] fathers may return to the altars, may return to the family the edges[?] Land legally protected." Funds are needed to rebuild the stone wall surrounding cemetery. The authorities of the municipalities have committed themselves to continuing care for the cemetery, are also hoping for full respect for the resting place of residents of Bani. Source with photos [April 2009]