CZELADZ: Zagłębie - International Jewish Cemetery Project

CZELADZ: Zagłębie
Last Updated Wednesday, 06 May 2009 12:39
Alternate names: Czeladź [Pol], Chelodz, Tzhelac [Yid], Cheliadz' [Rus], Czeladź Piaski,
Russian: Челядзь. ‫אלאדז'צ‬-Hebrew. 50°19' N, 19°06' E , 2 miles W of Będzin in Zagłębie
region. 1921 Jewish population: 753. Yizkor:
Pinkas ha-kehilot; entsiklopediya shel ha-yishuvim le-min hivasdam ve-ad le-aher shoat
milhemet ha-olam ha-sheniya: Poland vol. 7: Kielce and Lublin
(Jerusalem, 1999).
ShtetLink
. This town in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in southern Poland near Katowice borders on the Upper
Silesian Metropolitan Union - metropolis with the population of 2 million. Located in the Silesian
Highlands on the Brynica river (tributary of the Vistula), Czeladz has been in the Silesian
Voivodeship since its formation in 1999, previously it was in Katowice Voivodeship. Czeladź is
one of the cities of the 2.7 million Katowice urban area within a greater Silesian metropolitan
area populated by about 5,294,000 people. The 2008 town population was 34,072.Czeladz was
granted city status in 1262 and from 1434 - 1790 belonged to the Duchy of Siewierz. In the 19th
century, Czeladz became an important mining center. Jewish settlement in Czeladź started in
1863 when the Czarist officilas opened it to Jews, most from Wolbromia, Żarek, Czestochowa,
and Olkusz Będzin. Wholesale trade and mining industry were their economic basie. In 1890,
eighty Jewish families lived there. Never the majority, 17,202 inhabitants included 753 Jews in
1921 with 1,077 in 1931. For many years theCzeladz Jews were subject to nearby Bedzin
kehilla. The first synagogue was built in the interwar period. Before the outbreak of WWII,
about 2,000 Jews lived here of whom about forty survived; the majority were slaughtered in
Auschwitz-Birkenau. A local "
Judenra
t" established in Czeladz was subject to the central "
Judenrat
" in Sosnowiec. history and Holocaust information
. With several minyanim that met in private homes and shtibelach of Wolbrom, Gur, Radomsk,
and Kromolow Chassidim at the beginning of the 20th century, a dispute between Czeladz Jews
and the head of the Bedzin Jewish community led to separation during the First World
War.[April 2009]
CEMETERY: The Czeladz Jewish community formed a joint cemetery with Bedzin in 1916 on
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the border of both cities at ul. Będzińskiej 64 near the center of today's commercial M1.Divided
into several sections (men, women and children) with Czeldz Jews buried at front of the
cemetery and Bedzin in the back. In the 1930s, the site was enlarged. During WWII, Nazi
victims include the bodies of about a hundred Jews burned in the Bedzin synagogue and about
four hundred murdered during the liquidation of the ghetto in August 1943.After liberation, a few
funerals took place. In August 1945, Grossmana and Mariana Szlamka Gelbarda were killed
by Polish anti-Semites, and buried. The last known burial was in March 1948. Devastated
during WWII, the greatest damage was done under the communisits later. Many gravestones
were stolen for building materials. In 1988, financial support from Czeladz Mońka Stawskiego
enabled fencing, resetting of fallen gravestones, and some matzevot restoration.
photo
. A 2003 inventory of surviving tombstones by Jeffrey Cymbler, Lenzky Moses, Rabbi Szlomo
Englard, Krzysztof Adamiec, Ada Holtzman, Connie Newman and Orna Niederman led to the
2007 book entitled
The Cemetery and the Jewish Communities Będzin Czeladz
available by mail order at
Jewish Bookshop "Jarden"
. Approximately 3,200 graves, arranged in 88 rows in the men's section and 91 rows in the
female are generally traditional matzevot with inscriptions in Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, German
and Esperanto. Reconstructed polichrome gravestones (common practice before the Holocaust)
exist. The key to the cemetery gate can be obtained from the residents of a nearby house.
photos
. [April 2009]
US Commission No. POCE000552: The US Commission is not finished rechecking this file.
[2000]
*Some restoration with 5,000 stones dating from the 1880s. Source: Miriam Weiner, Routes to
Roots Foundation. [1999]
REFERENCES:
1. Daab, Alezandra, Macewy Bedzinskie [Bedzin Jewish Tombstones]. Katowice: Urzad
Miejski w Bedzinie, 1993. Derus, Malgorzata and Dariusz Walerjanski, "Cmentarze zydowskie w
wojewosdstwie katowickim" [Jewish Cemeteries in the Province of Katowice], in
Cmenta
rze zydowskie
. Wroclaw: Towarzystwo Przyjacol Polonistyki Wroclawskiej, 1995, pp. 155-165.
2. Rozmus, Dariusz, Cmentarze Zydowskie Ziemi Olkusziej [The Jewish Cemeteries in the
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Olkusz Region]. Krakow: Oficyna Cracovia, 1999.
3. Rozmus, Dariusz, "Nowe Dane Dotyczace Cmentarzy Zydowskich w Dawnym Powiecie
Olkuskim w Granicach Administracyjnch do 1975 r [New Data on Jewish Cemeteries in the
Former County of Olkusz Within the Administrative Boundaries Up to 1975]," in
Ochrona
Zabytkow
1999 Nr. 1, pp. 68-72.
4. Rozmus, Dariusz, "Slady Polichromii na Nagrobkach z Obszaru Dawnego Powiatu
Olkuskiego [Treces of Polychromy on Jewish Gravestones in the Former County of Olkusz]," in
Ochrona Zabytkow 2000 Nr. 1, pp. 85-92.
5. Walerjanski, Dariusz, "Cmentarze Zydowskie w Wojewodztwie Katowickim - Historia,
Stan Zachowania, Problemy Ochrony [Jewish Cemeteries in the Katowice Voivodship - History,
State Preservatio, Protection Problems]," in
Ochrona Zabytkow 1998, no. 3, pp. 246-257.
I am involved in a project to publish a book on the old Jewish cemetery in Bedzin, which dates
back to 1808. Anyone interested in this book, please contact me. Jeffrey Cymbler JCYMBLER
@aol.com
[November 2000 on JewishGen Digest]
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