[Not to be confused with Żmigród (former Trachenberg) in Lower Silesia]. Alternate names: Nowy Żmigród [Pol], Żmigród Nowy [Pol], Zhmigrod, זשמיגראד [Yid], Schmiedeburg [Ger], Żmigród, Zhmigrod Novy. 49°37' N, 21°32' E, 37 miles SE of Tarnów, 36 miles SW of Rzeszów, 9 miles SSE of Jasło. 1900 Jewish population: 1,240. Pinkas ha-kehilot; entsiklopediya shel ha-yishuvim le-min hivasdam ve-ad le-aher shoat milhemet ha-olam ha-sheniya: Poland vol. 3: Western Galicia and Silesia (Jerusalem, 1984). ShtetLink. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), XIV, pp. 792-793: "Żmigród" #1. Nowy Żmigród, until 1946 called Żmigród, is a village and rural gmina in Jasło powiat in southern Poland, 8 miles WNW of Dukla and 10 miles south of Jasło. The commercial roads leading to the Ukraine in the east and to Hungary in the south spurred Żmigród's growth due to the wine trade that brought wines to Poland from Hungarian vineyards.
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Jewish settlement in Żmigród dates from 1410. One hundred years later, a thriving Jewish community had alarge two-storey synagogue built in the 16th century. The Jewish kahal of Żmigród had jurisdiction over many Jewish communities including Jasło and Gorlice. Those communities buried their dead in the Żmigród cemetery until they gained their independence from Żmigród. The Cossack and Swedish invasions adversely impacted the Jewish community that had to borrow 125 thaler from the bishop of Krosno during 1694, but was unable to repay it until 1785. In 1765, 1,243 Jews lived in the villages surrounding Żmigród making the total population of the city and the neighboring areas total 1,926 Jews above the age of one year. Of these, 159 were the breadwinners. They owned 67, some of them occupied by as many as six families. The 1772 partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth made Żmigród part of the Galician territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1781, most of the Jews of Żmigród were in the lowest tax bracket. In 1791, the community wanted to resettle 17 families on farms with 250 florins. The unsuccessful plan found only four families settled by 1805. Flourishing from 1700 to 1750, the rabbi held sway in the area. A yeshiva existed. The Jewish community began to decline financially in the 19th century as many of the Jewish residents left the city for Gorlice and Jasło. The first blood libel in 1905 resulted when a gentile accused a Jewish family of kidnapping his 14-year old daughter in order to kill her and use her blood for ritual purposes. Five Jews were arrested and detained. Their innocence was proved after a long investigation meant conviction of the maid for perjury with three months in jail. Passions were inflamed. Area farmers constantly visited the "martyr" and spread anti-Jewish rumors. The greatest exodus took place during World War I, when many of the Jews of Żmigród immigrated. The area was heavily Chassidic started by Sanzer Rebbe, Chaim Halberstam. In 1919, the population further declined, reaching 800 in 1939. The interwar period started with a November 1918 pogrom in which farmers came with their wagons to the city market to steal Jewish-owned goods. Movable items disappeared rapidly; the rest was trampled or destroyed. Jews were beaten and some severely injured. The local gentile population and the "intelligentsia" ignored the event. A ban on the kosher slaughter of meat in 1937 struck at the lowest economic point in Jewish life between the wars. Kosher meat had to be bought from Jasło from one butcher with the necessary permit. At the outbreak of World War II, many Jews fled across the San river but most returned home. Some were rounded up by the Soviet authorities and moved to the interior in 1940. When the Germans occupied Nowy Żmigród, repression and forced labor were immediate. In 1940, Jews from the surroundings were driven to Nowy Żmigród with others from as far away as Łódź. The Judenrat and the J.S.S. (Jewish Self Help) provided lodgings, clothing and medical assistance as well as warm meals from the public kitchen. Early in 1942, a ghetto established in Nowy Żmigród meant more Jews forced to move into the community from nearby villages. The Jewish population reached an unbelievably overcrowded 2,000 people. On July 7, 1942, German, Polish and Ukrainian police surrounded all the Jews, ordered to assemble in the square. Women, children, sick and elderly people were separated from the able-bodied, who were directed to a table where representatives of the various German firms issued them work permits. They were directed to a separate corner of the square. Jews were forced to deposit all their valuables on a blanket spread in the square. The next day, the head of the Judenrat, Hersh Eisenberg, was murdered under the pretext that he did not pay the requested contribution. Three other people were killed with him including his two children. Hours later, 1,250 Jews were led to the Halbow forest where they were killed in prepared pits. Survivors of the round-up were sent on August 15, 1942 to the Zaslaw labor camp near Kraków while another group were sent to their death at Płaszów. The final remnants of the Jewish population were sent to the Belzec at the end of the summer of 1942. [June 2009]
CEMETERY: Established in the early 16th century with two hectares on the right side of the road to Jaslo, the many matzevot that remain are damaged and broken. The oldest gravestone dates back to 1742. Several hundred meters for the gas station and a Catholic cemetery adjoin the property. [June 2009]
US Commission No. POCE000730
The town of Nowy Zmigrod is in Krosno region at 21º32E, 49º37' N, 18 km from Jasto and 37 km from the larger town of Krosno. The cemetery is 1500 meters off the market square, by the road to Jaslo. Present population is 1000-5000 with no Jews.
Village (Naczelnik): Urzad Gminy, 38-230 Nowy Zmigrod, tel.#5 and telex # 65446 ug. Regional: region Konserwator Zabytkow mgr. Alojry, Cabatoi, ul Bieoscraolzka 1, 38-400 Krosno, tel. 21-974 and see Baligrod.
1921 Jewish population was 940 persons. The earliest know Orthodox Jewish community was the sixteenth century. The isolated suburban hillside has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly of a public road, access is open to all with no wall or fence or gate. The size of the cemetery is 0.2 ha. and was the same before WWII. 100-500 gravestones in the original positions and 1-20 not in its original location with 50 to 75% toppled or broken date from 1742-twentieth century. The cemetery is not divided into sections. The sandstone finely smoothed and inscribed or flat stones with carved decorations have Hebrew inscriptions. No known mass graves. Unknown owner uses the property only as a cemetery. Properties adjacent are agricultural. Rarely, private visitors stop. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II and has no maintenance. Security, weather erosion, vegetation, (overgrown young trees breaking gravestones) and vandalism pose a very serious threat. Water drainage is a seasonal problem.
Piotr Antoniock, who also completed the survey for Baligrod, visited site May 5, 1992 and completed the survey on September 11, 1992.
UPDATE: Cemetery photos at http://www.kirkuty.xip.pl/nowyzmigrod.htm [January 2006]