MYSLENICE: Małopolskie

Alternate names: Myślenice [Pol], Mishlenitz [Yid]. 49°50' N, 19°56' E, 17 miles S of Kraków. 1900 Jewish population: 386 (in 1880), 675 (in 1921). Yizkor: Sefer zikaron le-kehilot Wadowice, Andrychow, Kalwarja, Myslenice, Sucha. (Ramat Gan, 1967). Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), VI, pp. 828-832: "Myślenice". Myślenice powiat is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Lesser Poland Voivodeship in southern Poland since January 1, 1999 with its administrative seat and largest town in Myślenice, 26 km (16 mi) S of the regional capital Kraków. The county also contains the towns of Sułkowice, 10 km (6 mi) W of Myślenice, and Dobczyce, 15 km (9 mi) NE of Myślenice. As of 2006 powiat population is 116,793 wih tMyślenices 18,070 and Sułkowice 6,305, Dobczyce 6,028. photos. [June 2009]

"Memorial plaque on the Market Square. The plaque was erected on the 62nd anniversary of the final liquidation of the Myslenice Jewish Community. On the plaque is written in Polish and Hebrew: In this place on 22nd August 1942 the Nazis sent 1300 Jews from Myslenice and the surrounding area to their deaths in Skawina and Belzec." Source. photo and photo.[March 2011]

"The cemetery, as we noted above, was registered as a possession of the gmina in the municipal land register in Myślenice in 1874. It lies beside the main road leading to Krakow at a distance of 2km from the town. The dead from the surrounding area were also buried there. The gabbaim in our period were Meir Kaufteil and Nachman Stiel and others whose names it is difficult to bring to mind today. All fulfilled that heavy duty with charity and with commitment, not taking any reward. The family of Nachman Stiel and his wife Miriam were among the most respected in the town. The uncle of Miriam Stiel, Rabbi Natan Aron Neiger, was the leader of the yeshiva in the town, of which we write below in the section on the Talmud Tora. Their daughter Chaja Reich was a teacher in the „Beit Jakow" school, in Wadowice (see the chapter on Wadowice). All the family died in the holocaust apart from the daughter Jafa Kirschenbaum who immediately after the Doboszynski attack in 1936 left the town and settled in Israel. She currently lives in Tel Aviv. The Myślenice cemetery was witness to a terrible massacre carried out by the Nazis on innocent Jewish country people who the Germans didn't manage to bring in from the surrounding area to Myślenice in time on the tragic Saturday in 1942 when the Jews were taken away to Skawina. Words are said on this Saturday in the section below on the extermination. The latecomers were shot in the cemetery and buried in a common grave^[1]. The cemetery was destroyed by the Nazis, the fence torn down, memorials smashed and some of them used to repair the footways of streets in the centre of the town. Only 5 graves remained untouched and stand to this day in their place. After the War the devastated cemetery was restored by the Jewish Congregation in Krakow under the leadership of Meir Jakubowicz, brother of the writer of these words. A new fence was erected. Those grave stones that were not standing in their place and broken into pieces were taken and according to ritual regulations attached to the cemetery wall. A memorial plaque was placed by the gates to the destroyed cemetery and in the cemetery there is a monument to the unfortunate victims whom the Nazis murdered." Source [March 2011]

US Commission Report No. AS 160

Myslenic is located in the Krakow region. Myslenice Krakow at 49º50' 19º57', 34 km S of Krakow. The cemetery is on the W ridge of Gora Szubienna Mountain, over the cliff of road behind the filling station on opposite side of road. Present population is 5,000-25,000, no Jews.

• Local: City Council and (Sad Rejonowy, Wydzial Ksiag Wieczystych) the Regional Court of Justice, Department of Land Record Book, tel. 22148 or 21392. Woiwodship Office, 22 Basztowa St, Krakow, tel. 160200, FAX 227208; Woiwodship Office Department of Social Affairs, 22 Basztowa St, Krakow, tel. 226828 or 223371; Inspectorate for Associations and Religious Denominations, Room 273; and the Jewish Congregation, 2 Skawinska St, tel. 562349.
  
• Regional: State Regional Conservation Office for Woiwodship, 3 Wszystkich Swietych Square, tel. 225977, FAX 161417 (cemeteries tel. 161415).
  
• Interested: Regional Center for the Study and Preservation of Cultural Landscapes and the Committee for the Care of Monuments of Jewish Culture. 12 Swietego Jana St, Krakow. The State Archive for Woiwodship, 2 Sienna St, Krakow, tel. 224094 and the Regional Museum, 3 Sobieskiego St, tel. 20211.

The earliest known Jewish community was about 1836. 1921 Jewish population was 675. The Orthodox cemetery was established in 1874 with last known burial in 1941. Buried in the cemetery are Rabbi Izaak Hirszfeld (1932), son of Eliezere; Rabbi Dow Bejrisz (1933), son of Szmaja; and Rabbi Samuel (1904), son of Mosze Jakub. The communities of Dobczyce, Gdow, Sulkowice and Harbutowice also used this cemetery. The cemetery is listed (1982) as a local commemorative monument to murdered Jews. The rural on a hillside and isolated has a sign or plaque in Polish which mentions the Jewish community and a Star of David on the gate or wall. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all with a continuous masonry wall, a continuous fence, and non-locking gate. The size before WWII and now of the cemetery is. 8 ha. 20-100gravestones, 1-20 in original location with 50-75% toppled or broken, date from 1874-20th centuries. The marble, granite and sandstone finely smoothed and inscribed or flat stones with carved relief decorations have Hebrew inscriptions. It contains unmarked mass graves. The local Jewish community in Krakow owns site used only as a Jewish cemetery. Adjacent property is agricultural and the road to Myslenice-Cracow. Private visitors stop rarely. The cemetery was vandalized during WWII. Central Jewish Commission of Social Aid and Jewish groups within the country re- erected stones and fixed the wall and gate in 1961. A monument to murdered Jews was erected in 1963. The Jewish Congregation of Krakow pays for Occasional clearing or cleaning by individuals. There are no structures. Weather erosion, vegetation, vandalism and existing incompatible development are threats. Security and pollution are serious threats. Vegetation is a seasonal problem, preventing access. An international road, Myslenic Krakow, with heavy traffic increases erosion of sandstone.

Malgorzata Radolowicz, 37 Floriamska St, Apt 3, Krakow completed survey on July 19, 1995 after a visit on the same day. Documentation: Myslenice Historical-Urban survey by B. Krasnowolski, S. Rusinska, Krakow 1982, Documentation of Jewish Cemetery in Myslenice by J. Tomasik, 1989 and a transcript by E. Dida containing translations of inscriptions in collection of local museum. Local museum clerks and Mr. Tadeusz Jakubowicz were interviewed for this survey.

 

[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [March 2016]