According to the testimony of robber Mateusz Klimczak from Beskidy, who stated that he sold the stolen goods to “a Jew near Biała”, it is assumed that Jews settled in the area in the late 17th century. In 1752, around 100 Jews lived in Lipnik and Biała. By that time, the Jewish population of Biała had probably established its own kehilla, a synagogue and a cemetery.
A conflict arose between the inhabitants of Biała and Jews in the 1760s, resulting in driving the latter from the town. The Jewish necropolis was destroyed; the fence was torn down and the tombstones removed. One of the matzevot was placed at the doorstep of the house of the deceased Jan Hofmann; it was still there in 1812. According to Dr Jerzy Polak, who in 1995 prepared a historical-conservational report on the commission of the mayor of Bielsko-Biała, the cemetery had approximately 10 acres and at least a dozen or so stone matzevot were located there[1.1]. A short description of the site, dated to 1812, states that the cemetery was surrounded by a wooden fence mde of 60 oaken posts capped by an awning. Jews had to pay one ducat for each post and 18 kreuzer for each shingle on the awning to the administrator of the alderman of Lipnica.
The location of this first Jewish necropolis in Biała is unknown. The whereabouts of the tombstones removed from the cemetery by inhabitants of Biała also remain a mystery.
