Brok Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Masovian Voivodeship
District
Ostrów
Settlement
Brok
Site address
13, Gabriela Narutowicza Street.
GPS coordinates
52.6993389, 21.8530512
Perimeter length
270 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
There is a wire mesh fence with barbed wire on its top (2m high). The fence is attached to iron posts. There is also an iron entrance gate.
Preservation condition
Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The Jewish cemetery of Brok is situated in an urban wooded area, the adjoining properties are residential and agricultural. The site is owned by the municipality and the property is used as a Jewish cemetery. Several dozen tombstones have been preserved. A stone with a memorial plaque is placed in front of the entrance.
Number of existing gravestones
40. 26 standing, 14 lying and several small fragments were found. The Matzevot are sandstone, flat shaped, finely smoothed and inscribed, or flat with carved relief decorations. Inscriptions on some stones have faded due to erosion and are barely legible.
Date of oldest tombstone
1855, 1870
Date of newest tombstone
1937
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
There is a Tziun over the place where the ohel, of local tzaddik Avraham Yehuda Leib Kozak (died in 1895), was located.
Drone surveys
No

Historical overview

Jews began to settle in Brok at the end of the 18th century. In 1855, Jews received permission from the authorities to establish a synagogue in the district. In 1921, 873 Jews lived in the town, most of whom were murdered in 1942 by the Germans in Treblinka. The cemetery is located about 400 metres west of the town centre, between Sienkiewicza, Konopnicka, and Narutowicza Streets, and covers a plot of approximately 0.7 hectares. The cemetery was established around 1852. A report by the Płock Governorate from June 9, 1855, states that the cemetery was then located on a plot of 9,000 square fathoms, purchased thanks to the contributions of the local Jewish community, and that it was surrounded by a fence and contained a mortuary. Earlier, Jews from Brok were buried in Ostrów Mazowiecka. No further information on the further of the cemetery is available. In 1895, Awraham Jehuda Lejb Kozak, who for 40 years served as a rabbi in Brok and was a student of the Rabbis from Góra Kalwaria and Kock, was buried in the cemetery.

The destruction of the cemetery likely began during World War II. Numerous tombstones were used by some residents for construction material and for grinding wheels. According to unconfirmed reports, some matzevot were used to pave Konopnicka Street. In 1964, authorities officially closed the cemetery. As a result of the damage the cemetery sustained, only 50 tombstones are preserved within the cemetery, most of which are made of granite fieldstone and some from sandstone steles. The oldest identified matzevah dates to 1854. In the central part of the cemetery, there is a modern, symbolic tombstone commemorating Rabbi Awraham Yehuda Lejb Kozak. The cemetery is surrounded by a metal mesh fence and the area is covered with pine trees. The owner of the cemetery is the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage. The facility is listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments of the Masovian Voivodeship (entry No. A-574, January 22, 1986).