Alternate names: Ślesin [Pol], Sleshin [Yid], Shlesin. 52°22' N, 18°19' E, 11 miles N of Konin, 44 miles NNE of Kalisz. Jewish population: about 300. Yizkor: Pinkas ha-kehilot; entsiklopediya shel ha-yishuvim le-min hivasdam ve-ad le-aher shoat milhemet ha-olam ha-sheniya: Poland vol. 1: The communities of Lodz and its region (Jerusalem, 1976). Ślesin is a town in Konin County, Greater Poland Voivodeship with 3,102 inhabitants in 2006. [July 2009]
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Jewish community of a few families in crafts and small trade became an independent Jewish community in 1877 with its rabbi Gershon Engelman followed by Rabbi Yakov Yehuda Lev Zamelman and Rabbi Yakov David Festenberg served the community. During the Nazi occupation, the Jews were economically deprivation and forced into slave labor. In July 1940, they were sent to Zagórów and Grodziec and shared the fate of these Jews. [July 2009]
US Commission No. POCE000700
The town is located at 52º22' 18º18' in Konin voivodship, 20 km N of Konin and 12 km W of Sompolno. Cemetery: outside the town, at village Rozopole, by the S side of the road from Slesin to Wasosze. Present town population is 1,000-5,000 with no Jews.
- Local: Burmistrz [Mayor] eng. Bogdan, Urzad Miasta, ul. Marchlewskiego 15 [street name may change] tel. #11 and M. Irena Sobierajska, PSOZ o/Konin Posada, gm. Kamimierz Biskupi, tel. # Konin 975, ext. 212-936.
- Regional: [Urzad Rejonowy, ul. 1 Maja 7 [street name may be changed], Konin. Nadlesnictwo Panstwowe [State Forest District Administration], ul. Gajowa 2, Konin.
The earliest known Jewish community is second half of the 19th century. 1939 Jewish population was about 400. The unlandmarked Orthodox and Conservative Jewish cemetery was established in the second half of the 19th century. 1940 was the last known Jewish burial. The isolated, forested, suburban hillside on the side of Mikowzynskie Lake has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all with a broken fence. The original gate was destroyed. The pre-and post-WWII cemetery size is about 0.9 ha. No stones are visible. "As people say, the tombstones were sandstone." The cemetery contains no known unmarked mass graves. The municipality owns the property now a forest planted in the 1950's on the site being used then as a waste dump. Adjacent property is recreational. Private visitors and local residents visit rarely. It was vandalized during WWII. No care. Within the limits of the cemetery are no structures. The cemetery is adjacent to vacation centers by Mikowzynskie Lake. Illegal summer campsites, vegetation, security, vandalism, waste dumping and incompatible nearby development are the serious threats.
Lucja Pawlicka-Nowak, Konin, ul. Mistopoola 15/76, tel. 43-43-56, who visited the site, completed survey September 1992. Documentation: card in the Conservator's office in Konin. Other documentation was "too old." Nowak interviewed, among others, Zdzistawa Rodzinska, Slesin.