Poland update: Second historic mikvah — this one a unique example of one made of wood — discovered in Oświęcim, the town in southern Poland where the Nazis built the Auschwitz death camp

Remnants of a second historic Mikvah have been discovered during construction of a parking lot  in Oświęcim, the town in southern Poland where the Nazis built the Auschwitz death camp. This one is wooden — believed unique in Europe — and may date back 400 years or more.

The announcement of its discovery came about a month after the discovery of a brick mikvah at more or less the same place. Both discoveries were made near the Great Synagogue Memorial Park, which is located on the site where the town’s destroyed main synagogue stood before WW2.

“Our conservative estimate is that these unique Mikvah remnants date back to the 17th century, but they are likely older,” Tomasz Kuncewicz, director of Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s Jewish Museum in Oświęcim, said in a statement. “Their uniqueness derives from the period of origin, their remarkable state of preservation, and the fact that virtually no traces of wooden Jewish buildings associated with this religious ritual have survived in this part of Europe.”

Kuncewicz said that the wooden mikvah was found slightly below the brick one.

According to historians, the surviving wooden buildings could date back to the beginnings of Jewish history in Oświęcim–the second half of the 16th century when the first synagogue and cemetery were established in the area. In Poland, Mikvahs were traditionally separate from other religious buildings but they formed a complex together with other religious institutions of Judaism. Therefore, the preserved remnants could be assumed to relate to the earliest period of Jewish presence in Oświęcim.

Jewish presence in Oświęcim dates back to the 16th century and by the early 20th century Jews made up more than half of the local population; they called the town Oshpitzin (a play on “Ushpizin”, the Aramaic term for “Guests”).

Only a few Oświęcim Jews  survived the Holocaust.

The last Jewish resident of Oświęcim, Szymon Kluger, died in 2000. Their stories are presented by the AJCF’s Jewish Museum in Oświęcim, located in the center of the Old Town and form the campus together with the historic Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue and Cafe Bergson. 

In the announcement of the discovery of the brick mikvah, in January, historian Dr. Artur Szyndler, curator of the Oshpitzin museum, noted that an Oświęcim mikvah was mentioned in an 18th century Hasidic tale from “Sefer Oshpitzin,” a book of remembrance of Oświęcim’s Jews published in 1977. In the story, he said, three great tzaddiks; Elimelech of Leżajsk, his brother Zusja of Annopol and Shlomo Bochner of Chrzanów met in Oświęcim during a journey.

They spent the whole day there, but following a rule they adopted on their trip, they did not stay at night in the same place where they spent the whole day. This time, however, at Elimelech’s request, they stayed in Oświęcim, and the tzaddik slept in the place of the mikvah, which has since been called the mikvah of “Reb Elimelech.”

See our post about the discovery of the brick mikvah