Alternate names: Czeladź [Pol], Chelodz, Tzhelac [Yid], Cheliadz' [Rus], Czeladź Piaski, Russian: Челядзь. צ'אלאדז-Hebrew. 50°19' N, 19°06' E, 2 miles W of Będzin in Zagłębie region. 1921 Jewish population: 753. Yizkor: Pinkas ha-kehilot; entsiklopediya shel ha-yishuvim le-min hivasdam ve-ad le-aher shoat milhemet ha-olam ha-sheniya: Poland vol. 7: Kielce and Lublin (Jerusalem, 1999). ShtetLink. This town in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in southern Poland near Katowice borders on the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - metropolis with the population of 2 million. Located in the Silesian Highlands on the Brynica river (tributary of the Vistula), Czeladz has been in the Silesian Voivodeship since its formation in 1999, previously it was in Katowice Voivodeship. Czeladź is one of the cities of the 2.7 million Katowice urban area within a greater Silesian metropolitan area populated by about 5,294,000 people. The 2008 town population was 34,072.Czeladz was granted city status in 1262 and from 1434 - 1790 belonged to the Duchy of Siewierz. In the 19th century, Czeladz became an important mining center. Jewish settlement in Czeladź started in 1863 when the Czarist officilas opened it to Jews, most from Wolbromia, Żarek, Czestochowa, and Olkusz Będzin. Wholesale trade and mining industry were their economic basie. In 1890, eighty Jewish families lived there. Never the majority, 17,202 inhabitants included 753 Jews in 1921 with 1,077 in 1931. For many years theCzeladz Jews were subject to nearby Bedzin kehilla. The first synagogue was built in the interwar period. Before the outbreak of WWII, about 2,000 Jews lived here of whom about forty survived; the majority were slaughtered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. A local "Judenrat" established in Czeladz was subject to the central "Judenrat" in Sosnowiec. history and Holocaust information. With several minyanim that met in private homes and shtibelach of Wolbrom, Gur, Radomsk, and Kromolow Chassidim at the beginning of the 20th century, a dispute between Czeladz Jews and the head of the Bedzin Jewish community led to separation during the First World War.[April 2009]
CEMETERY: The Czeladz Jewish community formed a joint cemetery with Bedzin in 1916 on the border of both cities at ul. Będzińskiej 64 near the center of today's commercial M1.Divided into several sections (men, women and children) with Czeldz Jews buried at front of the cemetery and Bedzin in the back. In the 1930s, the site was enlarged. During WWII, Nazi victims include the bodies of about a hundred Jews burned in the Bedzin synagogue and about four hundred murdered during the liquidation of the ghetto in August 1943.After liberation, a few funerals took place. In August 1945, Grossmana and Mariana Szlamka Gelbarda were killed by Polish anti-Semites, and buried. The last known burial was in March 1948. Devastated during WWII, the greatest damage was done under the communisits later. Many gravestones were stolen for building materials. In 1988, financial support from Czeladz Mońka Stawskiego enabled fencing, resetting of fallen gravestones, and some matzevot restoration. photo. A 2003 inventory of surviving tombstones by Jeffrey Cymbler, Lenzky Moses, Rabbi Szlomo Englard, Krzysztof Adamiec, Ada Holtzman, Connie Newman and Orna Niederman led to the 2007 book entitled The Cemetery and the Jewish Communities Będzin Czeladz available by mail order at Jewish Bookshop "Jarden". Approximately 3,200 graves, arranged in 88 rows in the men's section and 91 rows in the female are generally traditional matzevot with inscriptions in Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, German and Esperanto. Reconstructed polichrome gravestones (common practice before the Holocaust) exist. The key to the cemetery gate can be obtained from the residents of a nearby house. photos. [April 2009]
US Commission No. POCE000552: The US Commission is not finished rechecking this file. [2000]
*Some restoration with 5,000 stones dating from the 1880s. Source: Miriam Weiner, Routes to Roots Foundation. [1999]
REFERENCES:
- Daab, Alezandra, Macewy Bedzinskie [Bedzin Jewish Tombstones]. Katowice: Urzad Miejski w Bedzinie, 1993. Derus, Malgorzata and Dariusz Walerjanski, "Cmentarze zydowskie w wojewosdstwie katowickim" [Jewish Cemeteries in the Province of Katowice], in Cmentarze zydowskie. Wroclaw: Towarzystwo Przyjacol Polonistyki Wroclawskiej, 1995, pp. 155-165.
- Rozmus, Dariusz, Cmentarze Zydowskie Ziemi Olkusziej [The Jewish Cemeteries in the Olkusz Region]. Krakow: Oficyna Cracovia, 1999.
- Rozmus, Dariusz, "Nowe Dane Dotyczace Cmentarzy Zydowskich w Dawnym Powiecie Olkuskim w Granicach Administracyjnch do 1975 r [New Data on Jewish Cemeteries in the Former County of Olkusz Within the Administrative Boundaries Up to 1975]," in Ochrona Zabytkow 1999 Nr. 1, pp. 68-72.
- Rozmus, Dariusz, "Slady Polichromii na Nagrobkach z Obszaru Dawnego Powiatu Olkuskiego [Treces of Polychromy on Jewish Gravestones in the Former County of Olkusz]," in Ochrona Zabytkow 2000 Nr. 1, pp. 85-92.
- Walerjanski, Dariusz, "Cmentarze Zydowskie w Wojewodztwie Katowickim - Historia, Stan Zachowania, Problemy Ochrony [Jewish Cemeteries in the Katowice Voivodship - History, State Preservatio, Protection Problems]," in Ochrona Zabytkow 1998, no. 3, pp. 246-257.
I am involved in a project to publish a book on the old Jewish cemetery in Bedzin, which dates back to 1808. Anyone interested in this book, please contact me. Jeffrey Cymbler This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [November 2000 on JewishGen Digest]