Alternate names: Leobschuetz [Ger] and Hlubčice [Czech].50°12′4″N 17°49′29″E. In 1107, this was a small Moravian village named Glubcici dominated by a large wooden castle on the right bank of the Psina River, which from 1137 on formed the border between Moravia and Silesia. Jewish presence is first documented in 1360. In the first half of the 16th century, as a result of anti-Semitism, the Jews were forced to leave the city. Jewish settlement reoccurred only at the beginning of the 19th century, when King Frederick William III issued a edict allowing Jews citizenship and urban rights equal with other residents. In 1818, 62 Jews lived Głubczycach, and in 1862 301. The end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th saw a decrease in the number of Jews. In 1933 only 111 Jews lived there. During Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), Nazis destroyed the synagogue and committed a number of acts of robbery on the Jews. The last Jews of Głubczyce were deported by the Nazis in 1942 to Theresienstadt. video of cemetery. [May 2009]
New Cemetery: In 1896, another Jewish cemetery was founded on the present ul. Wrocławskiej near the Christian cemetery to transfer burials away from residences. This cemetery was destroyed. Today in the overgrown cemetery surrounded by a brick wall with the rusty lock on the gate are dozens of gravestones fragments. photos. video [May 2009]
GLUBCZYCE I: US Commission No. POCE000515
Alternate names: Leobschuetz (German) and Hlubcicko (other). The town is located at 50º12 17º50, 62 km. from Opole in the Wojendozlto, Opolske region. The cemetery location: ul. Wroclawska. Present town population is 5,000-25,000 with no Jews.
- Local: Urzad Miasta I Gminy, ul. Niepodleglosci 14, tel. 2325.
- Regional: Wojewodski Konserwator Zabytkow, mgr. J. Prusienicz, 45-082 Opole, ul. Piastowska 14.
There were 111 Progressive/Reform Jews before WWII. The last known burial was January 1941. Landmarked: no. 245/90. The suburban flat land, part of a municipal cemetery, has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. A continuous masonry wall with a non-locking gate surrounds. The size of the cemetery is 0.7 ha, as before WWII. 1 to 20 gravestones, less than 25% toppled or broken, date from the 20th century. The stones are finely smoothed and inscribed stones of "other" material inscribed in Hebrew and German. It contains no known mass graves. The municipality owns the property now used as a Jewish cemetery only. The surrounding properties are residential. Private visitors stop rarely. It was vandalized during World War II and occasionally. There has been no maintenance or care. Within the limits of the cemetery are no structures. Vandalism is a serious threat. Minor threats: security, weather erosion, pollution and vegetation. The cemetery is seriously destroyed.
Marcin Wodzinski, who visited the site on 6 April, 1992, ul. Jednosci Narodoneh 187/13, 50-303 Wroclaw, tel. 216908 completed survey 14 Apr 1992.
Old Cemetery: Established in 1814, in the wake of the regulation that Jewish burial sites had to be near the town of residence, for many years the Jews were forced to transport corpses to the nearest existing Jewish cemetery. This had a significant risk disease. This first Jewish cemetery was established in the present ul. Sobieskiego and now is a park. [May 2009]
GLUBCZYCE II: US Commission No. POCE000516
Cemetery location: ul. Sobieskiego. See Glubczyce I. The unlandmarked isolated urban flat land has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. A broken masonry wall with no gate surrounds the cemetery. No gravestones are visible. It contains no known mass graves. The municipality owns the property property is now used for recreation (park, playground, sports field). The surrounding properties are recreational. Private visitors stop rarely. It was vandalized frequently with no maintenance or care. Within the limits of the cemetery are no structures. Vandalism is a very serious threat.
Marcin Wodzinski, ul. Jednosci Narodoneh 187/13, 50-303 Wroclaw, tel. 216908 completed survey in 14 Apr 1992. Wodzinski visited the site April 6, 1992. He interviewed a newsstand keeper.