NOWY WISNICZ "In the distance among mountains and hills, straight ahead as the crow flies, The Jewish cemetery in Wisnicz was set up on the hill in the southern part of the town, right by the main road from Bochnia to Limanowa. The street leading from the cemetery to the Main Square was used to call Jewish street. The cemetery is surrounded with a metal fence built in the eighties of the 20 th century in the place of destroyed before the Second World War stone wall (its remains are still visible). There are two entrances: one from the south and the other from the north. By that second one there used to be a funeral house taken apart dozen of so years ago. After the Second World War the south part of the cemetery was taken over by a road-building company that built over there pitch factory in which asphalt was made. Abusch Hirsch, who used to live in the USA and now lives in Israel , was the one who removed that factory from the cemetery. In that place there is founded by him monument made from matzevot, commemorating Jewish victims of Hitler's crimes. In that part of the cemetery a new ohel was built to commemorate rabbis from Wisnicz. Their names are engraved on situated by the north entrance plate (also founded by Hirsch) with Polish-Hebrew inscription. There were: rabbi Hirsz Cwi Horowitz - son of Jakub, descendant of Szmelke from Nikolsburg, rabbi Nuta Lipszyc and rabbi Naftali Rubin, who died in 1939 as a very old man. The cemetery occupies area of 1,86 ha and is overgrown with shrubs and trees among which matzevot (mostly orientated) are still visible. The shape of tombstones (around 300 preserved) is quite uniform: vertical slabs topped with semicircle. The area of necropolis does not have any traces of sections or lanes. Quite extensive empty spaces are a proof that used to there were much more matzevas over here. Many of them made from marble or granite were removed by the Nazis. They took also sandstone slabs that were used as a material for foundations of other buildings. Also after 1945 they were used for the same purpose or Hebrew inscription was removed and the slab was moved to catholic cemetery as a tombstone. The earliest information about the Jewish cemetery in Wisnicz dates back to the 14 th of June 1641. On that day an accident took place here that was then written down in the town register: a pupil from the synagogue started a fight with a catholic stone mason journeymen who came there to have a look at the tombstone made by their master because they wanted to make similar one for a member of Israel community. There are also records concerning Jewish cemetery from the 17 th and 18 th century mentioning it as the point of orientation for location of houses and squares (used in transactions of purchase and sale). Unfortunately there is no archival data about the cemetery itself or its set up. The oldest still preserved matzevot come from the 17th century and are situated in the middle part of the cemetery, right by the tombstones from later periods. There are also matzevot from the 18 th , the 19 th and the 20 th century that were put on graves not only inhabitants of Wisnicz but also people from the surrounding villages or Jewish prisoners from the town prison or wandering beggars visiting the town. The area of the cemetery was gradually extended according to the needs (...). The last burial took place at the end of the Second World War. In September 1942 the Nazis shoot there three Jews and earlier on the 31 st of August three years old boy Pinkes and Wojciech Gicala who was hiding him were shoot. All epitaphs at cemetery in Wisnicz that survived are written in Hebrew. Typical for the 17 th and 18 th short and simple inscriptions were in use also later on but from the second half of the 19 th century they were replaced with more sophisticated ones. There is one mysterious matzeva from 1799 on which only year (according to the shortened calculus) and the first letters of phrase "may his soul be bound up in the circle of life" are engraved. Between the 18 th and 20 th century also shape of letters used on headstones has changed. At the beginning they were quite big and convex and constituted the only one but quite expressive decorative element. Through the 19 th century letters got smaller and smaller while development of decorations took opposite direction. On regular basis symbolic motifs are being met since the second half of the 19 th century. Earlier only graves of the Levis and rabbis had symbolic decorations. Some inscriptions were surrounded with decorative border consisting of plaited animal and vegetable motifs. On gravestones of people who studied the Holy Books a lion lying on the bookcase was engraved. That symbol was also used on gravestones of people whose name was Lajba (namesake of Juda, son of Jakub). On graves of people named Hirsch or Cwich an engraved deer can be seen. On the other hand picture of dove is common for shared graves of husband and wife or mother and daughter. Noble people known for their good name and honesty were honored with a symbol of crown held by two lions standing on their back paws. That motif is also common on graves of women with good name, usually daughters or wives of rabbis. But the most typical for graves of wives and mothers is a picture of candles. That reminds about their duty of lightning up Sabbath candles. In comparison to matzevot from bigger city centers (like Cracow , Lublin or Lvov ), those from Wisnicz show a kind of delay typical for provincial town. Simple matzevot without any decorations were in common use till the half of the 17 th century while in Wisnicz they survived till the beginning of the 19 th century. Motifs of books and animals that were popular from the beginning of the 19 th century, appeared in Wisnicz for the first time fifty years later. Nowadays the situation of the Jewish cemetery in Wisnicz is getting worse. There is no more patron who would sponsor the essential maintenance works and as the result the cemetery began to overgrown with shrubs. The above-cited text is a piece of the study "Jewish cemeteries in Bochnia, Brzesko and Nowy Wisnicz" by Iwona Zawidzka. The article was published in 1995 in a book "Jewish cemeteries. Studies from history of Jewish culture in Poland ". The editors of that website thank to the author for permission to publish her work. Ms Iwona Zawidzka is an employee in Museum of Stanislaw Fischer in Bochnia and an author of such books as "Jewish cemetery in Brzesko", "Holy places for all alive. The Jewish cemetery in Bochnia", "Jewish cemetery in Wisnicz". |