Almost until the end of the 19th century, Jews from Sosnowiec were subordinated to the religious community in Będzin and buried their dead there. It was connected with the inconveniences resulting from the necessity to transport the dead body and paying fees to the Jewish community in Będzin. According to the authors of Księga Pamięci Sosnowca i okolic (Memorial Book of Sosnowiec and its surroundings), in 1893, due to the outbreak of a cholera epidemic, Jews from Sosnowiec were forced to solve the question of the burials of numerous victims of the plague. Transporting the bodies to the cemetery in Będzin posed a significant epidemiological threat. On the initiative of Lejb Będziński, with the financial support of the Rajcher family, the local Jews decided to create their own cemetery. In turn, Wojciech Jaworski in his study Żydowskie gminy wyznaniowe w Zagłębiu Dąbrowskim (Jewish religious communities in Dąbrowa Basin) writes: “Due to the high burial fees that had to be paid by the Sosnowiec Jews to the cash box of the Będzin Synagogue District, in 1892 they began burying their dead in an almost unused cemetery for cholera victims at Książęca Street, currently Gospodarcza Street”. With time, this cemetery began to function as the official burial place of the members of the newly created Jewish community in Sosnowiec. The fencing of the cemetery was financed by merchant and entrepreneur Adolf Oppenheim, and Adam Bergman paid for the preparation of the area and the digging of a well for ritual ablution. The aforementioned Rajcher family built a funeral home [1.1].

The cemetery was built on an elongated rectangular plan, with an entrance gate and the funeral home located on the side of the currently called Gospodarcza Street.

During the Second World War, the cemetery was partially devastated. As one of the members of the local Jewish community claims, the greatest damages were done in the years of the Polish People's Republic. Some of the tombstones were torn out and used for strengthening of one of the streets - flooded with asphalt, they remain there to this day. The matzevot were also disappearing due to a dishonest cemetery caretaker who illegally sold marble and sandstone slabs to stone workshops. As a result of these activities, at the edges of the cemetery one can see huge shortages of tombstones.

The Jewish cemetery in Sosnowiec is a necropolis typical of large-city Jewish communities - this is reflected in the richness of tombstone forms, which are a stony record of the diversity of the Jewish communities I Poland during the pre-war period, both in terms of customs and their financial situation. In addition to traditional matzevot, we find tombstones in the form of obelisks, felled trees and stately mausoleums. The matzevot made of commonly used sandstone, concrete or terrazzo are neighbouring monuments made of marble, granite and other stones. Also inscriptions in Hebrew - the holy language of the Jews, used on matzevot for hundreds of years - often give way to epitaphs in Polish or German. The gravestones of the deceased in recent decades practically do not differ from those in the nearby Catholic cemetery. One of them even shows an almost photographic representation of the face of the deceased, which is contrary to the Judaic tradition.

The greatest concentration of tombstones is in the central part of the cemetery, which also serves as a burial area for recently deceased. Presumably, years ago, this place served as the "alley of merited". This is manifested by the extravagant tombs of famous Sosnowiec entrepreneurs and activists of the local Jewish community, including Adolf Oppenheim. Nearby, an attentive observer will find two matzevot, surrounded by a low underpinning, probably the foundations of destroyed ohel. The tombstone decorated with holy books belongs to Rabbi David Pardes, son of Mordechaj Lew, and a white matzeva with the symbol of blessing hands stands on the grave of three-year-old Abraham Elimelech Jechezchiel Aharon Kohen, son of David Moshe, son of a rabbi from Zawiercie. On the right, there is an ohel erected in the Moorish style, which is the resting place of Arie Lejbusz’ son, Abraham Majer Gitler, who served as a rabbi in Sosnowiec from 1888 until his death in 1925.

During the inventory works, it was possible to locate about 500 tombstones or their fragments, and to distinguish over sixty rows of tombstones, although often only single matzevot or their fragments survived in a given line. It can be assumed that before the Second World War the number of monuments was at least three times higher.

Many tombstones commemorate people who died or were murdered during the Second World War, and some of the graves are purely symbolic. The inscriptions often mention the names of as many as a dozen or so people from the same family.

During the Second World War, victims of German crimes were buried in the cemetery. Among others, on 4–10 September 1939, about 100 Jews were shot in Sosnowiec. The victims of the Holocaust are commemorated by a monument at the entrance with the inscription: “W hołdzie Żydom miast Zagłębia, zamordowanym przez hitlerowskich oprawców w latach 1939-1945" (In tribute to the Jews of Dąbrowa Basen cities, murdered by Nazi tormentors in 1939-1945).

The cemetery is still an active burial place. It is administered by the Jewish Community in Katowice. It is guarded and tidied up on a regular basis.