The oldest historical reference to Jewish presence in Upper Silesia (Górny Śląsk) concerns the very town of Siewierz. In 1226, Wawrzyniec, a Wrocław bishop, enacted customs regulations that specified fare regulations for passing Olesno and Siewierz customs chamber (veram et antiquam theoloneorum de Olesno et de Sever solucionem). It states that the Jews who carried their goods (e.g. herrings, salt, lead) from Morawy to Kujawy had to pay 2 pfennigs of fare. It is worth mentionig that, under the same document, the Christian merchants were exempted from the fare, while the Jews had to pay for themselves as if they were “the goods themselves”[1.1].

It was the oldest and the most humiliating Jewish tax in contemporary Poland and it was called Leizboll or Geleit-Geld [1.2].

There were no Jews in Siewierz until the mid-19th century[1.3]. The Jewish settlement in Siewierz started in the second half of the 19th century. In 1867 59 Jews lived in Siewierz[1.4].

In 1915, a Jewish cemetery was established there. In 1921, there were 266 Jews in Siewierz, which was 11.2% of total population. They were subordinate to a kahal in Będzin. There was a house of prayer in the town, which was destroyed during the war. In 1939, there were 229 Jews in Siewierz.

The German army entered and occupied Siewierz during World War II in September 1939. The town was bombed and seriously damaged. In early October 1939, part of the Jews were transported to Włoszczowa, where they were later taken to the ghetto.
The rest were deported to a ghetto in Zawiercie in 1940, after which, in 1943, they were deported to the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.