Alternate names: Exin [Ger], 155.2 miles WNW of Warszawa. This town in Nakło County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, had with 4,712 inhabitants in 2004. General history. Map [May 2009]
Jews first settled in Kcynia in 1507. By 1565, a synagogue and school in the synagogue existed. Jews quickly played a fairly dominant role in the trade city, which displeased townspeople who, in 1594 petitioned king Zygmund III for the privilege of limiting development of a Jewish community or trade. In 1565, in retaliation for alleged collaboration with the Swedes, the army carried out a Czarniecki Pogroms on Jews in many cities of Wielkopolska including Kcynia. In 1674 49 Jews (18%) lived in the city. Significant development of this community took place in the first half of the 19th century. Jewish population: 1808-309;1849-996 (41%). The Jewish quarter was in present-day ul. Strażackiej. In 1811, in Kcynia yeshiva attracted students from many other cities. Seeb Wolf Klausner, a famous rabbi, was born on October 18 , 1761 in Rawiczu. In 1804 - 1811, he was rabbi in Obornikach and from 1811 onwards until his death in 1861 (10 Tevet 5622) worked in Kcynii, where he ran the yeshiva. Over the last seven years of his life, Rabbi Klausner was blind and deaf, but taught by memory and mastery of Talmudic texts. In 1858, Kcynia Jewish merchant family produced Ismar Boas, physician and gastroenterologist [Wikipedia]. The second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century saw a decline in Jewish population due to immigration to other countries as a consequence of the Wielkopolska Uprising and economic conditions. Jewish population: 1910-199; 1924, only 40. The synagogue still manageda minyan,but on November 1, 1932, Kcynia Jewish community officially terminated. Since then, its members are subject to Szubinie kahał. A small group of Jewish residents in Kcynia fell victim to the Nazis as on September 16/17, 1939 when the local synagogue burned. The next morning, Germans accused the Jews of arson. A few hours later, they commanded the Jews to take their valuables and gather in the market. They loaded them into two trucks and took them from the city, where they were shot. [May 2009]
CEMETERY: Established by the roadside to Wągrowiec, house was built for the mortuary and caretaker dwelling. People who remember the cemetery before WW II say that it was well maintained. Tombs were enclosed in hand-forged steel płotkami and richly decorated. The Chevra Kadisha took care of burial whose chairman in the early 20th century was Seemann. During WW II, the Nazis ordered the gravestones picked up for the pavement of the cinema "Orzeł" executed by construction workers from folksdojcza Emil Posnanski. Workers were directed to expunge epitaphs, but part of the inscriptions were not destroyed; tombstones inscriptions were placed face down. After liberation, in the 1960s,when the cemetery became a park, machines turned up bones and skulls. In the 1990s, locals began to discuss demolishing the pavement at the cinema and returning the matzevot to the cemetery. The mayor gave instructions to extract the matzevot discovering 18th century gravestones. Photographs were taken. Tombstones originally were in the Municipal Economy Department. Three gravestones were buried in the cemetery as in a lapidarium on a cobblestone foundation. Photos. [May 2009]
US Commission No. POCE000598
(Exin in German) Kcynia is located in Bydgoskie at 52°59 17°29, 41 km from Bydgoszcz. Cemetery location: ul. Poznanska. Present town population is 1,000-5,000 with no Jews.
- Local: local administration of a commune council in Kcynia.
- Regional: mgr. Olga Romanowska-Grabowska, Panstwowa Sluzba Ochrony Zabytkow.
Earliest known Jewish community was 18th century. The Jewish cemetery was established in the 18th century. 1871 population was 477. The isolated urban flat land 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 after was 0.669 hectares. There are no gravestones, structures, or mass graves. The Municipality owns site used for recreation. Properties adjacent are residential. The cemetery is rarely visited. The cemetery, not vandalized in the last ten years, receives no maintenance or care. Weather erosion is a moderate threat.
Survey completed 30 Oct 1992 by Magdalena Grabowska, Bydgoszcz ul. Sanatoryjna 40, tel. 277335. Documentation: card of cemetery 1988 WKZ Bydgoszcz. Site was not visited; no interviews.