[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”0px||97px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”22px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][dipi_breadcrumbs bc_home_icon=”off” bc_hover_item_bg_color=”#FFFFFF” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” items_text_color=”#b0b0b0″ border_color_all_items=”#FFFFFF” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dipi_breadcrumbs][et_pb_nextend_smart_slider_3 slider=”16″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_css_free_form=”.selector {|| size: 90%;||}” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_nextend_smart_slider_3][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_post_title meta=”off” featured_image=”off” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” title_font=”Inter|900|||||||” title_text_color=”gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e” title_font_size=”32px” module_alignment=”left” custom_padding=”59px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e%22:%91%22title_text_color%22%93}”][\/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Inter|300|||||||” header_3_font=”Inter|300|||||||” header_3_text_align=”justify” header_3_text_color=”#959595″ custom_margin=”-24px||||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||31px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
The rigged elections of 1947 solidified Soviet control over Poland and strengthened the rule of the communist party, which no longer concealed its totalitarian ambitions. The Stalinist period was a difficult time for the Jewish community in Wroc\u0142aw. Political repression, control over cultural and educational institutions, and restrictions on religious life significantly affected the lives of Jews. Despite these challenges, the Jewish community tried to survive and preserve its identity, although many of its members decided to emigrate in search of a better life. A real blow to the Jewish community was the anti-Semitic campaign launched by W\u0142adys\u0142aw Gomu\u0142ka, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party, and his entourage. This resulted in the mass emigration of many members of the Jewish community. After 1968, the life of the community almost completely ceased.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_audio audio=”https:\/\/historiaodzyskana.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Podcast-9.mp3″ title=”Under the rule of people's democracy.” album_name=”Podcast FBK” _builder_version=”4.27.3″ _module_preset=”default” title_font=”–et_global_heading_font|600|||||||” title_text_color=”#FFFFFF” title_font_size=”33px” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.48)” background_image=”https:\/\/historiaodzyskana.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/prl.png” background_size=”stretch” background_blend=”darken” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_audio][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_accordion toggle_icon=”4||divi||400″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”45daa919-3f03-483a-83eb-b203211bb2ae” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e%22:%91%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22,%22body_link_text_color%22%93}”][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Stabilization?” open=”on” open_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” closed_toggle_text_color=”#1f1f1f” closed_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e%22:%91%22toggle_text_color%22%93}” toggle_text_color=”gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e” toggle_font=”Inter||||||||” toggle_font_size=”21px” closed_toggle_font=”Inter||||||||”]<\/p>\n
After the Jewish population in Lower Silesia stabilized and the Jewish committees had addressed the most pressing issues related to providing decent living conditions, healthcare, and employment for the repatriates, the committees began their activities in other areas. Particular emphasis was placed on increasing productivity (significant attention was paid to employing Jews in all branches of industry, and the cooperative movement was also important, as was settling Jews in rural areas). Efforts were made to create a new image of the working Jew. Jewish schools with instruction in Yiddish or Hebrew were established, as well as Talmud-Tora schools, kindergartens and nurseries, music schools, and even a ballet school. In Wroc\u0142aw, the Jewish Academic Circle (i.e., a circle of Jewish students) was actively operating, and the awarding of the first diploma to a Jewish student upon completion of higher education was a major celebration for the entire community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Considerable attention was given to culture, as in the new social reality, it was culture \u2013 secular culture (of course, progressive and socialist!) \u2013 that was to be the bearer of identity. The Lower Silesian Jewish Theatre had its loyal audience, both Polish and Jewish, and enjoyed undiminished popularity. Two Jewish periodicals were published in Lower Silesia: \u201cNowe \u017bycie\u201d in Polish and \u201cNiderszlezje\u201d in Yiddish. A publishing house was also established, which printed books in Yiddish. In 1947, there were 33 libraries, 13 cultural centers, 5 choirs, and 5 orchestras. Various Jewish political parties with diverse views also operated in Lower Silesia.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Under communist control.” open_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” closed_toggle_text_color=”#1f1f1f” closed_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e%22:%91%22toggle_text_color%22%93}” toggle_text_color=”gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e” toggle_font=”Inter||||||||” toggle_font_size=”21px” closed_toggle_font=”Inter||||||||” open=”off”]<\/p>\n
The increasing dominance of the communist party led to the gradual disenfranchisement and restriction of Jewish organizations. In January 1949, the Bund (General Jewish Workers’ Union), a socialist, anti-Zionist party that had been very active in the interwar period, supported the resistance movement during the war<\/span>, and made significant contributions to the building of Polish democracy, was dissolved. Members of the Bund were encouraged to join the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). The Society for Jewish Social and Cultural Activity (TSK\u017b) was established, an institution completely subordinate to the communist authorities. In October 1950, the Jewish committees and the Jewish Cultural and Artistic Association were forcibly merged. At the unification conference, participants chanted “Stalin, Bierut, peace,” and Jakub Egit, chairman of the Lower Silesian committee since 1945, resigned.<\/span><\/p>\n The authorities also forced other Jewish organizations to cease operations, including the Jewish Agency, which coordinated the emigration effort to Israel. All Jewish schools, as well as orphanages and nursing homes, were nationalized. Independent Jewish cooperatives were liquidated.<\/p>\n A symbolic event of that era was the case of the Jewish pavilion at the Exhibition of Recovered Territories in Wroc\u0142aw. Two Jewish pavilions were prepared: one dedicated to the history of Jews in the Western Territories and Jewish cooperatives, and another, located in the city center, featuring an illuminated diagram illustrating the achievements of Jews. However, before the pavilions could be visited by the public, government representatives toured them and ordered their immediate closure. In an interview given in 1975, Jakub Egit stated that the order to close the Jewish pavilions was a clear signal to him of the changes to come.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”1968 ” open_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” closed_toggle_text_color=”#1f1f1f” closed_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e%22:%91%22toggle_text_color%22%93}” toggle_text_color=”gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e” toggle_font=”Inter||||||||” toggle_font_size=”21px” closed_toggle_font=”Inter||||||||” open=”off”]<\/p>\n In the summer of 1967, as a result of the Six-Day War, the Soviet Union condemned Israel and severed diplomatic relations. The Polish authorities followed suit. The Church, led by Cardinal Wyszy\u0144ski, took a pro-Israel stance<\/u>. Some Poles openly demonstrated their support for the actions of the Israeli army, contrary to the position of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR), joking that “our Jews<\/u> beat their Arabs.” This led to an escalation of tensions not only in party circles but also among workers and people outside the ruling circles. A kind of campaign against Jews affected the structures of the PZPR, the army, the police, the security services, and other state institutions. People who were suspected of having Jewish origins or who spoke openly about their pro-Jewish sympathies were dismissed from their jobs, removed from their positions, and replaced by other people. The purge affected all circles \u2013 as a result of the campaign, many scientists, artists, doctors, and journalists left the country and went into exile. In addition to the personal and professional harassment that individuals had to endure, Jewish associations also faced problems. In Wroc\u0142aw, the Jewish Theater, which had been granted land and buildings on a perpetual lease two years earlier, had its property taken away, citing its use for purposes other than those intended. Due to its poor technical condition, the White Stork Synagogue was closed, and in 1974, under the law on abandoned German property, it was taken from the Congregation of the Mosaic Faith and transferred to the University of Wroc\u0142aw. A library was to be built there, but the work was quickly abandoned, causing even greater devastation. As a result, the Jews had at their disposal a small synagogue with a capacity of 50 people, which was not large enough to accommodate all the worshippers. Problems with obtaining permission for ritual slaughter also led to the end of the provision of free, kosher meals.<\/p>\n As a result of the 1968 anti-Semitic campaign, approximately 20,000 Polish citizens of Jewish origin left Poland, including many who were fully assimilated and had no ties to Jewish organizations. Open persecution by the authorities left them with no choice. The emigration continued uninterruptedly for six years. Surprisingly, passport issues often became an obstacle. Many did not want to renounce their Polish citizenship or travel with a “one-way ticket.” It is estimated that several thousand Jews left Wroc\u0142aw and Lower Silesia during this period.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Memory loss.” open_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” closed_toggle_text_color=”#1f1f1f” closed_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e%22:%91%22toggle_text_color%22%93}” toggle_text_color=”gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e” toggle_font=”Inter||||||||” toggle_font_size=”21px” closed_toggle_font=”Inter||||||||” open=”off”]<\/p>\n Today, we know the location of approximately 50 Jewish cemeteries in Lower Silesia. Only three of them \u2013 in Wroc\u0142aw on Lotnicza Street, in Wa\u0142brzych, and in Dzier\u017coni\u00f3w \u2013 are still active. The rest are in varying states of preservation. Some have completely disappeared, and only a broken tombstone or human memory places them in time and space. Others have been listed in the register or inventory of historical monuments. Still others have been saved by activists, often descendants of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust, or by new residents of the Western and Northern Territories, for whom the fate of the necropolis was not indifferent.<\/p>\n \n To this day, there are people working to commemorate Jewish burial sites. In 2017, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, in cooperation with the National Heritage Institute, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, and the regional offices for the protection of historical monuments, as well as the Jewish Historical Institute, the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in the Republic of Poland, and the Foundation for the Protection of Jewish Heritage, initiated the “Project for the Marking of Jewish Cemeteries in the Territory of the Republic of Poland.” The aim of the program was to create a list, and then a consistent system of marking and commemorating all Jewish cemeteries in the territory of present-day Poland, which were owned by Jewish communities until 1939. The inventory conducted made it possible to determine the number of cemeteries and their condition, and served as a basis for further work on commemorating the Jewish community of Polish and German origin. In this way, the number of sites in Lower Silesia was established at 50. It is worth exploring the history of some of them, the largest and most popular, as well as those whose traces are disappearing (or have disappeared) in the undergrowth of the forest or the expanding city.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Disappearance.” open_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” closed_toggle_text_color=”#1f1f1f” closed_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e%22:%91%22toggle_text_color%22%93}” toggle_text_color=”gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e” toggle_font=”Inter||||||||” toggle_font_size=”21px” closed_toggle_font=”Inter||||||||” open=”off”]<\/p>\n The dynamic development of the Jewish community was halted by the Kielce pogrom. The death of innocent Jews shocked their fellow Jews throughout Poland. Within just a few weeks after the events in Kielce, the number of Jewish residents in Lower Silesia decreased by more than 1\/3. Bricha, an organization dedicated to facilitating the emigration of Jews who survived the Holocaust to Palestine, became active. It operated illegally, but often with the tacit consent of the communist authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n Following the rigged elections in 1948, the attitude of the communist authorities towards Jewish organizations changed. The community gradually began to lose its assets, for example, due to the poor technical condition of the building, and later, issues of property rights also arose. The authorities took away the prayer rooms and the Synagogue under the White Stork from the Jewish community. After the events of March 1968, the community had only a small synagogue, which was often used by fewer than 10 people. The Jewish Theater and the bathhouse were closed. The synagogue building was transferred to the University of Wroc\u0142aw, which wanted to open a library there. The limited funds were not enough to carry out this plan, but the excavations carried out inside severely damaged the building. The synagogue’s furnishings also disappeared. Its condition perfectly symbolized the problems of the Jewish community, which never regained its former dynamism after 1968.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][\/et_pb_accordion][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_button button_url=”@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF9saW5rX3VybF9wYWdlIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsicG9zdF9pZCI6IjE0NTMifX0=@” button_text=”%22The Promised Land%22″ button_alignment=”left” button_alignment_tablet=”center” button_alignment_phone=”center” button_alignment_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _dynamic_attributes=”button_url” _module_preset=”default” custom_button=”on” button_text_size=”18px” button_bg_color=”gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e” button_border_width=”0px” button_border_radius=”1px” button_font=”Inter||||||||” button_icon=”4||divi||400″ button_icon_placement=”left” background_layout=”dark” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e%22:%91%22button_bg_color%22%93}”][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_button button_url=”@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF9saW5rX3VybF9wYWdlIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsicG9zdF9pZCI6IjE0NTUifX0=@” button_text=”In the Third Polish Republic.” button_alignment=”right” button_alignment_tablet=”” button_alignment_phone=”center” button_alignment_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _dynamic_attributes=”button_url” _module_preset=”default” custom_button=”on” button_text_size=”18px” button_bg_color=”gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e” button_border_width=”0px” button_border_radius=”1px” button_font=”Inter||||||||” button_icon=”5||divi||400″ background_layout=”dark” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-5a9fdf91-df28-41b5-b5fe-62687ea35f4e%22:%91%22button_bg_color%22%93}”][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"