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ID: dok-000544-P

Bielica cemetery

ID: dok-000544-P

Bielica cemetery

Cemetery with Polish grave monuments at St George's Church. Documentation has been made for the cemetery (4 cards stored in MKDNiS). Information about the cemetery has been published (see bibliography).

According to the authors of the book "Zabytkowe cmentarze na Kresach Wschodnich Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej: województwo nowogródzkie" ("Historical Cemeteries in the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic: Nowogródek Province"): the Catholic cemetery "is located on the south-western edge of the village (...), is situated on a flat terrain, has a rectangular ground plan, (...) the whole covers an area of 0.6 ha." A wooden cemetery chapel was built in the central part. The cemetery was established in the middle of the 19th century and is still active today. According to the aforementioned researchers, there are about 40 surviving gravestones from the 19th century. The oldest, from 1858, belongs to Barbara Nowakowiczówna and bears the inscription: "HERE LIES THE CORPSE / OF THE LATE BARBARA / NOVAKOWICZÓWNA / SHE LIVED FOR 16 YEARS DIED / 20 MAY 1858 / ASKS A PASSER-BY TO SIGH / TO GOD FOR HER SOUL". There are two tombstones in the cemetery-Julia and Wincenty Kaczanowcky from 1880 and Anna Szmuksty from 1905-with unique forms. Both are made of wood and have the shape of a pillar shrine.

There is also a disused Tatar cemetery in Bielica, located 200 m east of the Catholic cemetery. After the cited authors: "The boundaries of the cemetery are difficult to determine, from the traces of burials it can be assumed that it was approximately 600 m2 square. There are only two legible tombstones here: that of Marianna Koricka from 1845 and that of (...) Adamowicz from 1882 with a Russian inscription. "The cemetery is in a state of natural decay. Information from a representative of the local parish committee indicates that the cemetery is to be cleaned up and marked."

Another cemetery, located in the eastern part of Bielica, is a disused Jewish cemetery. As Lewkowski and Walczak write: "The shape of the cemetery foundation, which can be read from the range of burials, resembles a mirror image of the letter P. Originally the cemetery was fenced. (...) Established probably in the 1st half of the 19th century" It had an area of approximately 1.8 hectares. Today, the cemetery is in a poor condition: there are damaged matzevot and it is overgrown with grass.

The aforementioned researchers also write that in the extreme western part of Bielice there is a common grave of Jews who were shot by the Nazis in 1941. It bears the Hebrew and Russian inscription: 'EVERLASTING MEMORY OF JEWRJEJAM BIELICY / RASSTRIELJANNYM FASZISTAMI / 23 JULIA 1941 GOD'.

Bibliography:
  • „Cmentarze polskie poza granicami kraju” , raport, oprac. B. Gutowski, Warszawa 2022 (maszynopis).
  • Lewkowska Anna, Lewkowski Jacek, Walczak Wojciech, „Zabytkowe cmentarze na Kresach Wschodnich Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej. Województwo wileńskie na obszarze Republiki Białoruś”, Warszawa 2007.
Author:
Bartłomiej Gutowski, Dawid Mendrek
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