The Jewish community lived in Wroclaw already in the Middle Ages and was one of the largest Jewish communities in this part of Europe. The history of Jews, depending on the ruler, political system and social mood, was turbulent – beginning with acceptance, ending with expulsions and pogroms. You can read about it in my ebook – download for free a guide to Jewish Wrocław.
To provide the framework for the project, I decided to tell about the modern history of Wroclaw Jews from 1812 to the present day. This history begins with the Emancipation Edict that enabled the amazing development of the local community, which lasted until the 1930s. The Nazis’ rise to power, World War II and ultimately the Holocaust annihilated most European Jewish communities, including those in Wroclaw. The post-war times, on the other hand, were an interesting but short-lived attempt to resume Jewish life in Lower Silesia. The period of anti-Semitic repressions, with their peak in March 1968, disappeared with the fall of communism, and another attempt to revive the Jewish community began in post-communist Poland. I am also trying to find out what the Jewish life in Wroclaw looks like today and, what is equally important, how the memory of the past looks like.
So let’s look back – one of the traces of the medieval Jewish community is the matzevah of cantor David from 1203, most probably from the medieval Jewish cemetery. It can therefore be concluded that the local Jewish community was already developed in the 12th century. Interestingly, the matzevah of David is the oldest fully preserved Jewish tombstone in Poland. Today it is an exhibit of the Historical Museum in the Royal Palace. The medieval Jewish district was located in a completely different place than the modern one – its traces can be found in the vicinity of Uniwersytecki Square and along Uniwersytecka, Garbary, Nożownicza, Więzienna and Kuźnicza Streets. Two synagogues and a Jewish cemetery were most probably located within it. Until the nineteenth century, there were, among others Die Judengasse, i.e. the Jewish Alley. Its name testifies that Jews settled there.
The Jewish Square (Poloniae Amici)
Over the next decades, with short breaks, the Jewish community could develop in Wroclaw, but the first pogroms took place in the mid-fourteenth century. A tragedy occurred almost a hundred years later – forty-one Jews were burnt in Solny Square. Wroclaw also obtained the de non tolerandis Judaeis privilege granted by Casimir IV Jagiellon, which meant that Jews were not allowed to settle in the city.
From the mid-15th to the mid-17th century, Jews could not live in Wroclaw; the only exception were the fairs, to which they had the right to come several times a year for commercial purposes. This changed only in 1657, when the supplier of the imperial mint, Zacharias Lazarus, was permitted to settle in the city. The modern Jewish commune was established in the middle of the 17th century, and the later transition of Silesia to Prussian rule was initially very favourable to it. From the 18th century, Jews settled around the present Ghetto Heroes Square – previously it was the Jewish Square – and established their institutions and centres there, as well as several inns and synagogues. So when the Emancipation Edict was announced in 1812, the Jews became full citizens of the city. They had the right to settle down, buy real estate, practice their religion and pursue a profit-making activity. This is how the great period of prosperity began – the economic, cultural and intellectual boom of the Jewish community of Wroclaw occurred.
The matzevah of cantor David from 1203