Alternate names: Kamienna Góra, Lanžhot, Kamenná Hora [Czech], Landeshut [Ger] .50°47' N 16°02' E, 236.1 miles WSW of Warszawa. Kamienna Góra is a town in SW Poland with 21,440 inhabitants in 2006 and the seat of Kamienna Góra County and also of the rural district called Gmina Kamienna Góra, although it is not part of the territory of the latter. Tthe town forms a separate urban gmina. On the Bóbr river in Lower Silesian Voivodeship (from 1975-1998 in the former Jelenia Góra Voivodeship) between the Stone Mountains and the Rudawy Janowickie on the old trade route from Silesia to Prague, 78 km (48 mi) SW of the regional capital, Wrocław. In 1812, Jews gained the right to settle in Kamienna Góra. Despite the small Jewish population (53 in 1840), they organized the Jewish community as early as 1821. Until completion of the synagogue building at Wallstrase (al. Wojska Polskiego) in 1858, prayers were held at Friedrich Str 21 (current ul. Mickiewicza). The greatest Jewish population in Kamienna Gora was 1884 with 177. Joseph FV Grunfeld in 1862 owned a flax and yarn factory. He was buried with his wife in a new Jewish Cemetery and his hiers donated 2,000 marks on January 1, 1897. Gradually, Jewish community size declined until in 1933 only 74 remained. During Kristallnacht, only 14 remained in the city. On November 9, 1938 was the destruction of the synagogue, now in its place a parking lot for the court and four Jewish shops removed. Probably those who remained were deported and murdered. [May 2009]
The Jewish cemetery at Katowicka Street has fewer than 100 19th and 20th century gravestones. [August 2003]
NEW CEMETERY: Officially opened on August 16, 1881, at the foot of the southern slopes of the Góry Zamkowej and destroyed after WWII, but even in 2002 traces of its existence remain between the lagoon and the garden plots entrance. [May 2009]
OLD CEMETERY: Begun in 1824 with 0.05 hectares, the fenced cemetery is located at ul. Katowickiej (formerly Waldenburger Strasse) between the Catholic cemetery and the old funeral home. A high wall to the east, the south, to the west the path separating the Jewish and Catholic with a wooden railing the gate, the northern border is the wall of nearby buildings. Several dozen tombstones are preserved in good condition with legible inscriptions. Gravestones are set in a row, facing east. The gate leads into the narrow lane of the front of the cemetery, to the wall at which the broken matzevot fragments are laid out in a mosaic. The sandstone gravestones are eroding. Predominately, inscriptions are Hebrew with German on just a few. Often, the first and last name is written in Roman characters. At several matzevot have fragments of letters. On the part of gravestones is traditional Jewish symbolism. Apart from a single willow growing almost at the center of the cemetery, the view is clear, full of light. For many years, young people from the Youth Council of the Museum of Weaving were caretakers. However, Antyschematy with the support of employees and friends of the Museum and the local high school youth restored cemetery in the summer of 2003. The condition now seems to belie this. Directions: From ul. Katowickiej go to the path along the east wall the beautiful Catholic cemetery. photos. [May 2009]