Alternate names: Kańczuga [Pol], Kantchika, Kontchuga. 49°59' N, 22°25' E, 19 miles ESE of Rzeszów, 10 miles SE of Łańcut, 7 miles SSW of Przeworsk. 1900 Jewish population: about 1,000. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), III, p. 802: "Kańczuga" #2. Kańczuga is a city in woj. Podkarpackie, in the district Podgórze Rzeszów on the Mleczką river, the seat of urban-rural gmina Kańczuga. In the years 1975-1998 the city administratively belonged to woj. Przemysl. We Remember Jewish KANCZUGA. [May 2009] ShtetLink. Map. photos. [October 2000]
Jewish settlement in Kanczuga came in the 16th century. Under the Royal Decree of 1638, the Jews were subject to the Przemysl kahał and initially buried their dead there. In time, with development of the local Jewish community, the municipality and the Kańczudze Jewish community organized their own Jewish cemetery on land in nearby Siedleczka village on a hill about three hundred meters from the road toward Dynów. The Nazis executed many Jews in the cemetery and in the vicinity during WWII. One of those executions, carried out during closing the ghetto, Witold Piecuch described in his article "Great night in Kańczudze" (Gazeta Wyborcza",. 2/3 March 2002):" Leading them to "the trench". ...groups of 50 people...no one tried to escape, although this group only escort were two Germans and a navy policeman. On the 'okopie "- the old Jewish cemetery - 200 Jews were shot (....).How the overwhelmed earth is still moving. "As a result of damage to the cemetery about 0.4 hectares remain today with only a few dozen traditional 18th and 19th century matzevot. About fifty meters north, at the foot of the hill is a mass grave of Holocaust victims, murdered by the Germans in August 1942. In 2008, in cooperation with the Conservation Foundation and the Jewish Heritage Ziomkostwa Jews from Kańczugi, the cemetery has been fenced and cleaned. Formal completion of the work took place on August 17, 2008 at a ceremony attended by Jews from Kańczug, FODZ representatives, local authorities, and residents. video. photos. [May 2009]
The following probably also used this cemetery: Bialoboki, Chmielnik, Kanczuga, Gac, Jawornik Polski, Manasterz, Markowa, Zabratówka, Zagorze
UPDATE: "In Kanczuga, the stones are blank because of acid rain." Source: Suzan Wynne This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. on 15 Jun 2002 JewishGen Digest. [June 2002]
The Jerusalem Post, May 28, 2008. Galician Jewish Cemetery Restored. By Jerusalem Post Staff: "Siedlezcka, Poland - A moving ceremony took place in Siedlezcka on Monday marking the restoration of the Galician town's Jewish cemetery, which was established in 1850. Among the attendees were Michael Freund, chairman of Shavei Israel and a Jerusalem Post columnist, and the mayor of Kanczuga, Jacek Solek, who agreed to pave a new road to the cemetery at the town's expense.
The restoration work, which was financed in part by Freund and his family (through Warsaw's Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland and the Siedleczka-Kanczuga Landsmanschaft headed by Howard Nightingale) included: cleaning the cemetery, restoring the grave-sites and rebuilding the stone wall surrounding the burial ground. The wall was urgently needed as farmers recently began trying to expand their fields into the cemetery. For many years the cemetery served several Jewish communities in southeast Poland, near the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, including: Kanczuga (where Freund's family came from), Gac, Bialoboki, Markowa, Manasterz, Zagorze, Chmielnik, Jawornik Polski and Zabratówka. Only around 500 graves remain, with the last known burial having taken place in 1940. The first recorded Jewish presence in Kanczuga dates to 1638, and by 1939, there were over 1,000 Jews there, more than 80 percent of the town's population. In 1942 the Germans rounded up more than 1,000 Jews from Kanczuga, marched them to the cemetery, murdered them and tossed their bodies into a mass grave. In his address at Monday's ceremony, Freund said he could no longer stand by and watch the neglect of the cemetery and so decided to fund its restoration. 'It was sad for me to see that a number of the gravestones collapsed or were broken and that the cemetery was overgrown by trees and bushes, and essentially looked like a forest. It was also evident that many gravestones were taken from the cemetery over the years to pave local streets, or were looted by local persons,' he said. 'Today when I look over the result of the restoration work, I am very hopeful that the cemetery is now safe from plunder and that it will continue to serve as a monument to the thousands of Jews who lived in this area before the Germans arrived and destroyed everything'." Source: Michael Freund [June 2008]
US Commission No. POCE000153
Kanczuga is located in Przemyskie at 49°59 22°25, 40 km from Przemysl and 11 km from Przeworsk. Cemetery location: in Siedleczka village, S of Kanczuga, north of Siedleuka, W of Kanczuga-Dynow road. Present town population is 1,000-5,000 with no Jews.
- Town: Urzad Miasta i Gminy, ul. Konopnickiej, tel. 142.
- Regional: Wojewodzki Konserwator Zabytkow, mgr. Pawel Koziol, 37-200 Przemysl, ul. Rynek 24, tel. 5944.
Earliest known Jewish community was 1638. 1921 Jewish population (census) was 967. The landmarked Jewish cemetery was established about 1850 with last Orthodox burial about 1940. The isolated rural (agricultural) hillside has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all with no wall or gate. The size of the cemetery before WWll and now is 0.44 hectares. 100-500 gravestones, 1-20 not in original location withless than 25% toppled or broken, date from 1862-20th century. Stones removed from cemetery were incorporated into the main road to cemetery and other roads and private properties. The limestone and sandstone rough stones or boulders, flat shaped stones, or flat stones with carved relief decorations have Hebrew inscriptions. There are marked mass graves. Municipality owns site no longer used. Properties adjacent are agricultural and residential. Local residents visit rarely. The cemetery was not vandalized in the last ten years. There is no maintenance, care, or structures. Security and vegetation are moderate threats.
Jan Pawel Woronczak, Sandomierska St. 21 m.1, 02-567 Warszawa, tel. 49-54-62 completed survey 27 Nov 1991. Jan Powel, Anna Kune, Robert Kaskow, and Marcin Wodzinski visited the site in 1990. Interviews were conducted.
[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [March 2016]