Alternate names: Kleczew [Pol], Kletcheva [Yid], Kleczow, Kletchei. 52°22' N, 18°10' E, 11 miles NNW of Konin, 43 miles N of Kalisz, 70 miles NW of Łódź, and 86 km (53 mi) E of the regional capital Poznań. Gmina Kleczew is an urban-rural administrative district in Konin County, Greater Poland Voivodeship in west-central Poland and with Kleczew as the seat. 1900 Jewish population: 734. Yizkor:Pinkas ha-kehilot; entsiklopediya shel ha-yishuvim le-min hivasdam ve-ad le-aher shoat milhemet ha-olam ha-sheniya: Poland vol. 1: The communities of Lodz and its region (Jerusalem, 1976). ShtetLink. Map. We Remember Jewish Kleczew. Although 262 Jews lived here in 1765, restrictions on Jewish settlement remained up to 1862. The former city cinema on Koninska Street before the war was the 1855 Jewish synagogue. No sign about its original function exists. The Jews did forced labor including building bridges and paving roads. On July 17, 1940, Jews were deported to the Zagorow and Rzgow ghettos. On August 17-18, 1940, the ghetto liquidation in Kleczew took place including Jews, who were expelled to Bełchatów, Bełchatów, Grodziec and Rzgów. After a few months, groups of male deportees from Kleczew were transported to the Inowrocław forced labor camp. Description of a trip to Kleczew in 1990. [October 2000 and June 2009]
MASS GRAVES: The Jews of Kleczew were liquidated in the Kazimierz forest near Kazimierz Biskupi in mass graves, dug before by forced labor Jewish prisoners, who were forced to jump inside without even being shot. Lime was poured on them to burn them alive. photos. Several memorials are erected at the mass grave site although the cemetery was obliterated, replaced by a stadium. [June 2009]
CEMETERY: "Germans erased the place completely, used the tombstones for pavements in town (Dr. Nowak has collected some of them and they are now in her Konin Museum), then they gathered all the bones, buried them in one big pit and built a public lavatory on it." Source [June 2009]
"The cemetery, which I was anxious to visit, had been completely destroyed. A soccer stadium had been built in its place, and there were no stones remaining. ... Back in the forest, we found the large monument to the Polish victims of Hitler's war. Jan said that the trees around us were not cut down because of the large number of bullets in them left over from the war -they would break the saws of those that would lumber the trees. " Source?
US Commission No. POCE000694
Kleczew is located in Koninskie. Cemetery location: by the road to Konin (20 km from Konin). It is now the stadium named 40th Anniversary under the PPR, but the name probably now changed. Present town population is 1,000-5,000 with no Jews.
- Town: Burmistrz (Mayor) Stanislaw Lisiecki, Urzad Miasta i Gminy, Plac Kosciuszki 5, Klecrew, tel. 100. See Konin for details of the local government.
Earliest known Jewish community was the 18th century. 1939 Jewish population was 1233 (1/3 of population). The last known Orthodox (Sephardic) or Progressive/ Reform burial was "Pacanowski" in Sept. 1939. The isolated suburban flat land has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. A fence and locked gate for stadium exists. The size of the cemetery before WWll was 0.5 hectares. There are no gravestones or mass graves. Some removed stones were buried in the peat excavation pits at 600-lecia (Szescsetlecia) Road in the meadows of Ms. Zeglicka. More valuable stones (marble, granite) were transferred in 1942 near Kleozewskie Lake where the building materials were stored. Part of the stones were used for building the streets (curbs at Pornanska St. in 1970-75). In 1975, they were taken away (location unknown). There were no known mass graves. Municipality owns site used as a sports field-stadium built in 1941-42. Properties adjacent are agricultural. Local residents visit the cemetery. The cemetery was vandalized during WWll. No maintenance. During 1941-42 Germans exhumed part of the burials to one pit close to the present sports field.
Lucja Pawlicka-Nowak, Porolicka Nawal. ul. 11 distopoda, 15/76 62-510 Konin, tel. 43-4356 completed survey 10 Nov 1992. Zdzislaw Lorek and Nowak visited 28 Sept 1992 and 10 Nov 1992. Persons interviewed: Bernard Wdowczyk, ul. Koscielna 12, Klecrew, tel. 132 and Wiestawa Wdowczyk, ul. Rudki, Klecrew.