Alternate names: Jelenia Góra [Pol], Hirschberg im Riesengebirge [Ger], Jelení Hora [Cz], Hirschberg in Schlesien, Hirschberg. 50°54' N, 15°44' E, 58 miles WSW of Wrocław (Breslau), in Lower Silesia. Jewish population: 450 (in 1880), 184 (in 1931). Jelenia Góra is situated in Lower Silesian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously the seat of Jelenia Góra Voivodeship (1975-1998). The city constitutes a separate urban gmina and city powiat, as well as being the seat of Jelenia Góra County (which surrounds but does not include the city). 2007 population: 86,372. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust notes that the Jews in Jelenia Gora were documented in the first half of 14th century, but significant Jewish population growth was in the 19th century. In 1810, 33 Jews lived here. In 1880, 450 persons did. Many Jews immigrated to America at the turn of the century so that in 1931 only 184 Jew remained. Kristallnacht victims of the Nazis were three Jews from Jelenia Gora. Increasing repression caused a further exodus of Jews from the city. In 1937, 146 was the total population. During the "Kristallnacht" Nazi hooligans destroyed the synagogue and cemetery and many shops and establishments belonging to the Jews. In 1939, only 67 Jews remained. Most were deported to Terezin and ghettos. Very few survived. The Jewish Community in Jelenia Gora had two cemeteries. [May 2009]
books stolen by the Nazis. "Because of bombing raids on Berlin, the accession department at the national library was evacuated to Hirschberg -- now the Polish city of Jelenia Góra -- in the foothills of the Giant Mountains in the spring of 1944. Many of the intake documents are still in Jelenia Góra today, where a historian has been reviewing them since the end of last year." [May 2009]
CEMETERY:
Matzevot found in a trash dump by the local town councillor Rafal Szymanski, will be secured. Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland has intervened n June 2015. picture. [July 2015]
Old Cemetery: The first cemetery was founded around 1820 in the area bounded by the existing streets: Nowowiejską, Na Skałkach, andStudencką. Today, no trace remains. [May 2009]
New Cemetery: In 1879 (some sources say 1880) a new Jewish cemetery was located on ul. Sudeckiej, In 1910, its area was enlarged. Several gravestones were destroyed. ("The Word", Jewish, No. 19) says that "The last burial was in 1941, but after the war a few burials took place including in 1946. There are few 20th century gravestones ...A fragment of a 1993 letter to the Social Committee for the Care of Cemeteries and Monuments of Jewish Culture in Poland [Góry do Społecznego Komitetu Opieki nad Cmentarzami i Zabytkami Kultury Żydowskiej w Polsce] says "only a few remaining tombstones, some damaged, others illegible, and others with readable subtitles. The fact is that the Germans did not destroy the cemetery; the devastation was just after the war." With an inventory of cemeteries established in 1965 by the Congregation of Moses in Walbrzych [Kongregację Wyznania Mojżeszowego] cemetery alignment shows that in the 1960s there was a funeral home and the fence existed. On November 18, 1974 the authorities issued their official decision to close the cemetery. The hotel was built in its property. [May 2009]