Alternate names: Oleszyce [Pol], Halshitz [Yid], Holeshits, Holashitz, Oleshitse. 50°10' N, 23°02' E, 29 miles NNE of Przemyśl, 4 miles W of Lubaczów. 1900 Jewish population: 1,514. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), VII, pp. 478-480: "Oleszyce" #1. This small town with 3,089 inhabitants in 2008 and the seat of Gmina Oleszyce, an urban-rural administrative district in Lubaczów powiat, Subcarpathian Voivodeship in SE Poland is 7 km (4 mi) W of Lubaczów and 75 km (47 mi) E of the regional capital Rzeszów with a 2006 total population of 6,562. Apart from the town of Oleszyce, Gmina Oleszyce contains the villages and settlements of Borchów, Futory, Nowa Grobla, Stare Oleszyce and Stare Sioło. Normal 0 Richly decorated gravestones still bearing traces of polychrome tilt or are entirely fallen. A mass grave of escapees from the ghetto in Lubaczowie, who were shot by the Germans, exists, but its exact location is unknown. The 7599 square meters cemetery at at ul. 3-go Maja about two hundred meters south of the market towards the railway station has an open gate. photos. [June 2009]
ShtetLink [October 2000]
US Commission No. POCE000146
Oleszyce is in region Przemysl, 50º10' 23º02', 55 km from Przemysl and 165 km from Lublin. The cemetery is in the center of the town, south from the Market Square (Rynek) at Swierczewskiego St. Present population is 1000-5000 with no Jews.
- Town: Urzad Gminy tel. 10.
- Local: Pawel Koziol, Woj Konserwator Zabytkow, 37-700 Przemysl, ul. Rynek 24, tel. 59-44.
1921 Jewish population was 590 (54.5%). The Orthodox Jewish cemetery was established before 1767. The isolated urban flat land no signs or markers and reached by turning directly off public road. A continuous fence with gate that does not open surround but a hole in the fence is open to all. Approximate size was and is 0.82ha. 500-5000 gravestones, most in original locations and 20 to 100 not with less than 25% of surviving stones, date from 1797-20th century. Vegetation is a constant problem disturbing graves. The cemetery is not divided into sections. The limestone, flat shaped, finely smoothed and inscribed or stones with carved relief decoration have Hebrew inscriptions. There are no known mass graves. The municipality owns closed cemetery. Properties adjacent are residential. It is rarely visited. The cemetery has not been vandalized in the last ten years and had repairs made to the wall and gate. Vegetation and weather erosion, security and vandalism are moderate threats. Pollution and incompatible nearby existing development are slight threats.
Jan Pawet Woronczak, Sandomierska, 21m I; 02-567 Warszawa, tel. 49-54-62 completed the survey on September 7, 1991. In 1990, Jan Pawet Woronczak, Anna Kune, Robert Kaskow, and Marcin Wodziniski visited.
"Some gravestones were standing, others toppled." Source: Cohen, Chester G. "Jewish Cemeteries in Southern Poland" from `An Epilogue' in Shtetl Finder. 1980.
[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [March 2016]