Traces of Oświęcim Jews

The Jewish community before the outbreak of Second World War constituted around
60 percent of the whole society of Oświęcim town. Jewish lived here for over 400 years.
We encourage you to a walk in the traces of their former, long presence in our town.

Jewish Museum

5 Ks. Jana Skarbka Square

The Museum presents an exhibition entitled „Oshpitzin. History of Jewish Oświęcim”, showing the history of the local Jewish community, whose origins date back to the second half of the 16th century. The exhibition consists of photographs, documents, historical exhibits and multimedia, including memories of former Jewish residents of the town. Among others, visitors can see unique Judaica coming from the Great Synagogue destroyed in 1939 by the Nazis. For visitors is also available app: Oszpicin.

Photo: Auschwitz Jewish Center

Chewra Lomdei Misznajot Synagogue

5 Ks. Jana Skarbka Square

The only Jewish house of prayer in Oświęcim, preserved to this day. This historic building, forming part of the Jewish Museum, does not have its own rabbi, nor a congregation of the faithful, but  serves as a place of prayer, reflection and remembrance.

Built circa 1913, the Nazis devastated its interior and used the building as a munitions warehouse. After World War II, Jewish survivors in Oświęcim once again used it as a synagogue. In the 50s, the last Jews of Oświęcim left, and the synagogue stood empty. In the 1970s, the Communist government nationalized the building and turned it into a carpet warehouse.

In 1998, the synagogue became the first Jewish communal property to be returned to a Jewish community in Poland and the recipients of the property, the Bielsko-Biala Jewish Community, donated the synagogue to the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation. The AJCF restored the building to its pre-war condition as described by survivors. It was reopened in September 2000 and it’s a part of the Jewish Museum in Oświęcim.

Inside, there is a large prayer room adjacent to the former women’s gallery.
The rooms are illuminated by windows, the openings of which from the outside are closed with full or segmented arches. In the prayer room (in the men’s section), there are, among others wooden Aron Kodesh (altar cabinet used to store the Torah scrolls, the first five books of the Bible, the most important revealed text of Judaism), bimahs (elevated place with a table for teaching and reading the Torah), shelves for prayer books and benches.
A multi-arm, decorative, metal chandelier hangs above the room. Originally, there was a room for studying the Talmud (Torah commentaries) in the synagogue’s attic. In the men’s section, two historic plaques have remained.

Plaque from 1907, aside Aron Kodesh
Photo: CIT Oświęcim

„Oświęcim stories”

5 Ks. Jana Skarbka Square

Triangular aluminum structure with circular windows standing in front of the Jewish Museum. The display presents seven different stories, shown in the form of a comic book, describing the relations between the Jewish and Catholic communities of Oświęcim town.

Photo: CIT Oświęcim

Café Bergson

5 Ks. Jana Skarbka Square

Modern Café and place of culture events located in an adapted house of the last Jewish resident of Oświęcim town Szymon Kluger who passed away in 2000. The café combines elements of its original interior with minimalistic design, maintaining the soul of the family’s home while making it modern and accessible. It brings together local culture and regional and traditional products.

Photo: Jarosław Fiedor

The Great Synagogue Memorial Park

The Great Synagogue Memorial Park
Berka Joselewicza 5 str

For centuries the Great Synagogue in Oświęcim was the center of the Jewish life in our town. Following the occupation of Oświęcim, the Great Synagogue was set ablaze and destroyed by the Germans on the night of November 29, 1939. The site was long an empty lot, with in recent years signage describing the synagogue.
In the park there is an installation containing a model, photos and the history of the house of prayer, as well as 40 stone slabs arranged in a  free composition. This irregular layout symbolizes the ruins – the remains of the former synagogue.

Thanks to the generous support of the town of Oświęcim as well as institutional and private donors from Poland and beyond, we have transformed this space into a Memorial Park to create opportunities for reflection and remembrance for residents of Oświęcim and visitors to the town.
Memorial Park in Oświęcim won the award of the Society of Polish Town Planners for the best developed green public space in Poland, and was nominated for the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award.

The Great Synagogue Memorial Park
Photo: Bartosz Haduch

Jewish Cemetery

Jewish Cemetery
Wysokie Brzegi 1 str.

Oświęcim’s first Jewish cemetery was founded circa 1588, but its location is unknown. Today, the only surviving cemetery is situated at the corner of Dąbrowskiego street and Wysokie Brzegi street. It was established at the turn of the 19th century. The cemetery was originally square, but the area that remains today is trapezoidal. During World War II, the cemetery was devastated by the Germans and part of its grounds were covered by Dąbrowskiego Str. In 1941, the cemetery was closed just after the Jews were deported from Oświęcim. In the first decade after the war, the Jews who returned to Oświęcim took care of the cemetery and in the following years, the wall surrounding the graveyard was repaired. In the 1980s, the cemetery was renovated thanks to the support of Asher Scharf of New York. Sections of tombstones were arranged into memorials. At the same time, the Scharf family’s ohel (in Hebrew, a small building built over a distinguished grave) was reconstructed. The other ohel in the cemetery covers the grave of Szymon Kluger, the last Jew who lived in Oświęcim. Almost 1000 tombstones have been preserved in Oświęcim’s Jewish cemetery.
The cemetery is under the care of the Jewish Museum, which allows for visiting.
The guidebook to the Jewish cemetery of Oświęcim. „The Jewish Cemetery in Oświęcim. History, symbols, nature”.

Tombstones – Matzevot
Photo: CIT Oświęcim

Gate of the historic cemetery
Photo: CIT Oświęcim

Bunker of Memory
Photo: Tomasz Kuncewicz

Bunker of Memory
An installation made of fragments of tombstones found in the cemetery, in the town itself and the surrounding villages, as well as a learning path explaining the meaning of basic grave symbols. An additional element is a map that allows you to locate selected historic tombstones. The preserved fragments of the tombstones were placed on the walls of a former Nazi German bunker, which was built during World War II on the site of a devastated cemetery.

Jakob Haberfeld Story

4 Dąbrowskiego str.

The story of the one of the most influential Jewish family in Oświęcim – Haberfeld Family – the owners of Steam Vodka and Liquor Factory, established by Jakob Haberfeld in 1804. Products from the factory were recognized all over Europe and won many awards at international exhibitions. Its almost 140 year of history ended together with the outbreak of World War II.

On the premises of the former factory was established a museum. The exhibition presents factory equipment elements, bottles, labels, advertising materials, documents, as well as private items from the Haberfeld’s house – adjacent to the factory. The display is enriched with items presenting other producers from the region and the country, including multimedia materials. The museum also serves as a music pub, where you can taste the unique alcohols and have fun during concerts and performances.

Photo: Jarosław Fiedor

Stolpersteine

1 Bulwary str.

A symbolic stone with a brass plaque dedicated to the daughter of Felicja and Jakob Haberfeld – 5-year-old Franciszka, who was murdered in the death camp in Bełżec in 1942. Stolperstein is a sett-size, ten-centimetre (3.9 in) concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.
Stolperstein in German means „the stone on which we stumble”. The Stolpersteine project, initiated by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992, aims to commemorate individuals at exactly the last place of residency. There are already several dozen stones of this type in Europe, reminiscent of the victims of the Holocaust –> http://www.stolpersteine.eu/en/home/

The Memorial Stone is located in front of the entrance to the apartment building at 1 Bulwary str. (next to the Limoncello Tratoria restaurant)

Photo: Christian Michelides