Jews in Upper Silesia .
exhibition at the museum in GLIWICe
Bożena Kubit
A permanent exhibition titled “Jews in Upper Silesia” has been available since 2018, at the Upper Silesian Jews House of Remembrance, a branch of the Museum in Gliwice. It is the first such cross-sectional and comprehensive exposition, showing the contribution of the Jewish community in the development of the region and its complicated history. It illustrates the social and religious life of the Jews, as well as their involvement in economic activities, especially in the XIX century, when their significance was most relevant. Their history is presented from the beginnings of the settlement at the end of the Middle Ages, through the most significant numerical development in the XIX century, to the XX century, the Holocaust, post-war period, until the present day.
Upper Silesia is a land with a rich history and tangled political histories: in the Middle Ages, these lands belonged to the Polish state of the Piast Dynasty, then to the Czech Crown and the Austrian state of the Habsburgs. In the middle of the XVIII century, most of Upper Silesia became part of the Kingdom of Prussia, becoming one of the most important industrial centres of Central Europe in the XIX century. At the beginning of the exhibition a multimedia presentation of changes in the nationality and borders of the region over the centuries was presented, to familiarise visitors with these complex issues and the territorial range of Upper Silesia. The exhibition itself refers to Upper Silesia within the boundaries of the XIX century Opole district, i.e. excluding Cieszyn Silesia and Opava Silesia (regions that remained in the Austrian state in the XVIII century, with different historical conditions).
The ancestors of Upper Silesian Jews came to these lands in the Middle Ages mainly from Germany and the Czech Republic. At the outset of the exhibition, the earliest traces of their stay and the oldest surviving documents are presented, and further on, waves of their settlement and the associated restrictions, privileges, prohibitions, etc. - until the XIX century, when full equality of rights for Jews was achieved in the Prussian state. This part of the exposition highlights the importance of the town of Biała near Prudnik (in German; Zülz), which was the most important centre of Jewish life in Upper Silesia between the XVI and XVII centuries
The emancipation edict of 1812 and subsequent Prussian legislation made it possible to revive Jewish settlements. It led to the emergence of new religious communes and the development of religious life: construction of synagogues, establishment of cemeteries, running active religious institutions. At the same time, these changes facilitated the assimilation of Jews to the dominant German culture in Upper Silesia.
In this part of the exposition, one of the most important elements is the presentation of more than forty Upper Silesia synagogues, most of which no longer exist. They are presented in a unique, visually beautiful form so-called crystal; i.e., a portable browser with illuminated walls on which visitors can learn about the history of their creation, location in city spaces and iconography, sometimes unique, showing their diversity.
All images in the article: Museum in Gliwice