Alternate names: Trzebinia [Pol], Chaben [Yid], Chubin, Treshebin, Trzebinia Miasteczko, Trzebinia Miasto, Chabin, Chebinya, Tshebin. 50°10' N, 19°29' E, 20 miles WNW of Kraków, 4 miles ENE of Chrzanów. 634 Jewish population: (in 1880), 915 (in 1921). Yizkor: Kehilat Tshebin (Haifa, 1969). This is not Trzebinia, Silesian Voivodeship. Trzebinia is a town in south Poland, now in Lesser Poland Voivodeship after being part of Katowice Voivodeship (1975-1998). During the German invasion on September 5, 1939, the Wehrmacht soldiers mass murdered 97 people in the town. An Orlen oil refinery and a major rail junction of the Kraków - Katowice line that connects to Oświęcim and Spytkowice. In August 1944, the Nazi Germany Trzebina subcamp was one of the largest of the Auschwitz III-Monowitz concentration camp and provided forced labor for a nearby oil refinery. [July 2009]
US Commission No. 000543: In Katowickie. The US Commission is not finished rechecking this file. [2000]
Jewish merchants traveled to this village in the Middle Ages, but began in 1731 (Sunday market). The town developed in 1817. Jews lived mostly in this city set in an agricultural area. In 1870, of 817, 752 were Poles and 65 Jews (mainly engaged in trade and distilling.) Some ran medium-sized farms. In 1815, the Jews established a kahal including areas to the east and south of the city along with Krzeszowicami, Rudawa, and Alwerni Okleśnej. At the end of the 18th century, they officially purchased the land on which the cemetery already existed. Trzebini had four synagogues. The first was built at the end of the 18th century and the remaining three in the 19th century. The largest synagogue at the Market does not exist. "Kupiecka" Street Piłsudski synagogue remains, but not in the best condition. Of the other two synagogues little is known. The kahal had standard social and educational services for both the Chassidim and Zionists, two competitive groups. Nazi occupation was accompanied by the typical indignities and tortures. The first aktion in September 1939 took 87 Jews, who were shot on the railway track near śmietnisku. Three days later (September 8), about 40 Jews taken from the market were shot near the monastery of Salwatorianów. On September 23, Yom Kippur, on the sports field called "Falcon", 30 Jews were shot while 7 others were murdered at the railroad station. Trzebini never had the Gestapo or a ghetto. Therefore the Jews were shipped to the ghetto in Chrzanowie that had been created in November 1941. That ghetto was liquidated on February 18, 1943 with the people transported to Auschwitz. Trzebini also had a number of labor camps, the first in 1942. Jews, Poles, French, Romanians, Russians, and Hungarian, 700 to 800 people, were forced to work here on building railways. Typhus was prevalent. All who died in the miserable conditions were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Trzebini. The camp closed on January 20, 1945 with inmates probably taken to Auschwitz. The second Nazis camp from 1943 held about 60 women working in road maintenance and water supply. The camp was closed in 1944. In August 1944, the oil refinery established at Arbeitslager Trzebinia. Belgian and British prisoners were forced to work at the refinery. In August 1944, prisoners were transported to Auschwitz. The refinery was bombed. To rebuild the refinery, the Germans sent prisoners from Auschwitz, who worked until they dropped. [July 2009]
CEMETERY: Established legally in 1815, many Jews already were buried here. The oldest gravestone (Simon) dates from 1780 and the newest from 1942 (Eli David Markowicz). The cemetery has four sections: women, men, girls and boys. Abandoned for many years, in the 1980s, the cemetery had gravestones toppled, graves open with bones visible to the drunks congregating there. Later, the Trzebini Citizens in Israel cleaned and did maintenance. On August 13, 1990, a rededication was held. Before the ceremony at the cemetery, several of the restored 248 gravestones were filled with anti-Semitic graffiti. Benjamin Yaari (deceased) and Ada Holtzman, Eli Wald, and Raba Israel inventoried the graves.Benjamin Yaari (deceased) and Ada Holtzman, Eli Wald, and Raba Israel inventoried the graves. The ohel of Chaim Israel Kluger, Moshe Simon, and J Abraham Chaim Levi was restored. photos. [July 2009]
[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [April 2016]