Guhrau

Summary: Although Jews lived in Guhrau (present-day Góra Śląska, Poland) for a brief period during the mid-1300s, they were expelled in 1362 and not permitted to return until 1849. Those who then settled there established a synagogue and consecrated a cemetery. That house of worship had fallen into disrepair by the early 1900s, and the community inaugurated a new one in 1914. As a result of economic scarcity and the ravages of World War I, Guhrau’s Jewish population dwindled during the early 1900s. During the 1930s, in response to Nazi persecution, Jews again began to leave Guhrau. On Pogrom Night, Nazi rioters set fire to the synagogue and two Jewish businesses. Later, in 1943, the Gestapo ravaged the cemetery and trashed its tombstones; today, with all of the tombstones gone, the area is overgrown with tall grass and weeds. As of this writing, a memorial plaque has never been erected in Guhrau.

Author / Sources: Moshe Finkel
Sources: EJL, IAJGS