Alternate names: Brzostek [Pol], Brzhostik [Yid], בז'וסטק-Hebrew. 49°53' N, 21°25' E, 28 miles WSW of Rzeszów, 21 miles ESE of Tarnów, 9 miles NNW of Jasło. 1910 Jewish population: 514. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), I, p. 421: "Brzostek". Gmina Brzostek is an urban-rural administrative district in Dębica County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in SE Poland with its seat is the town of Brzostek that gained town status on January 1, 2009. The gmina had a 2006 ipopulation of 13,022 with Brzostek at 2,597. Gmina villages and settlements are Bączałka, Bukowa, Głobikówka, Gorzejowa, Grudna Dolna, Grudna Górna, Januszkowice, Kamienica Dolna, Kamienica Górna, Klecie, Nawsie Brzosteckie, Opacionka, Przeczyca, Siedliska-Bogusz, Skurowa, Smarżowa, Wola Brzostecka and Zawadka Brzostecka. [April 2009]
Jewish Press article: :"Brzostek Rediscovers Its Jewish Past" "The Jewish cemetery is to be fenced and a monument erected there, and an additional plaque in memory of the Jews who used to live there is to be unveiled in the town center. The plaque will be unveiled and the cemetery rededicated in a ceremony to take place on Sunday, June 14, 2009... was a Jewish community, a small shul and a cemetery, and there was a rabbi and shopkeepers and teachers and housewives and craftsmen and all the other people who go to make up a community, adults and children. Then, in 1942, the Germans brought the Jewish history of Brzostek to an end. The Jews who lived in the town were murdered, mostly shot to death in the nearby Kolaczyce Forest or gassed in the Belzec death camp, but also in some in other unknown locations. All that was left was the shul, the cemetery, and a street called Ulica Zydowska -- Jewish Street -- leading from the main square to the synagogue. After the war, the synagogue was converted to other uses. Nothing is left to show that it was a synagogue, but the local people remember. No stones remain in the cemetery and there is no fence, but no one ploughs there, no one grazes cattle there. The local people remember. ... Records of Jewish burials have been found. Fragments of some 30 tombstones, and even some whole tombstones, have been found and will be returned to the cemetery. Photographs of Jews have been found, and the people in them identified. A small exhibition of the Jewish history of Brzostek is being organized by the town, and an exhibition of magnificent papercuts on Jewish themes by the acclaimed Polish artist Marta Golab whose own family come from the town is to be hosted in the town. Brzostek is rediscovering its Jewish past." For information about the ceremony planned for Sunday June 14, 2009: "A project is underway to memorialize the Jews of Brzostek. We are fencing the cemetery, erecting a monument in the cemetery in Hebrew, and installing a plaque in the town centre in memory of its former Jewish residents. We are also reinstalling some thirty old matzevot that have come to light in recent years, and arranging memorial plaques to commemorate other Jewish families from Brzostek. The project has been initiated by some of the descendants of Simon Joseph Webber (born in Brzostek in 1876) who live in England, and has been carried out in full co-operation both with the chief rabbi of Poland and the Brzostek town council. A formal rededication ceremony is to take place in Brzostek on the afternoon of Sunday 14 June 2009, and we would like to invite everyone with a Brzostek connection to participate. Civic and rabbinic dignitaries will be in attendance, as will pupils from the local schools. Buses will be arranged to and from Krakow on the Sunday, and arrangements have been made for kosher food to be available both on the Sunday and for the preceding Shabbat in Krakow. Anyone interested in receiving further details should contact Mrs. Connie Webber via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.[April 2009]
cemetery photos and text in Polish. [April 2009]
US Commission No. POCE000032: The US Commission is not finished rechecking this file [2000].