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Gniewoszow Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Masovian Voivodeship
District
Kozienice
Settlement
Gniewoszów
Site address
From the intersection of Oleksowska and Kozienicka Streets, head 80m north on Oleksowska street, then turn left at house No.3 onto a country road for 120m. The cemetery will be 70m west from the end of the road.
GPS coordinates
51.4765218, 21.8105596
Perimeter length
260 meters
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
The cemetery is fenced with a concrete block wall (1-1.5m high) with a metal gate with a star of David. The eastern border of the cemetery doesn’t have a fence.
Preservation condition
Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The Jewish cemetery is situated in the north-western part of the village, between Oleksowska and Kozienicka streets. From the northern side, the cemetery area adjoins private residential plots, from the south, the cemetery is adjacent to a small pond. The cemetery area is a meadow, which is clean and well maintained. Several fragments of Matezvot are embedded into the interior side of the northern wall. There is an information board, placed on the interior side of the cemetery wall, which marks the approximate place, where the victims of local post-war pogrom (1945) were buried.
Number of existing gravestones
No tombstones have been preserved in situ. 13 fragments of tombstones are embedded into the northern cemetery wall near the entrance.
Date of oldest tombstone
1881
Date of newest tombstone
1897, 1892
Urgency of erecting a fence
Low
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
No

Historical overview

Jewish settlement in Gniewoszów began in the 18th century. In 1921 there were 585 Jewish residents (66.4% of the total population), the majority of whom were killed in 1942 by the Nazis in Treblinka. The Jewish cemetery in Gniewoszów is located approximately 180 metres northwest of the town square, near Zacisze Street, and covers a trapezoid-shaped plot measuring approximately 0.5 hectares. The cemetery’s establishment date is unknown, though it is possible that the cemetery was established in the mid-18th century (the synagogue in Gniewoszów existed as early as 1748) and no later than the first half of the 19th century, as indicated by historical records of burial costs in a local registry in 1844. Before 1939, the cemetery was fenced. Presumably, the last burial took place in 1945, when the last five Jewish residents of Gniewoszów to survive the Holocaust were killed. During World War II, local residents began to destroy the area. Tombstones and parts of the wall were taken apart and used for construction purposes. All aboveground signs of the cemetery have since disappeared. The area was later used as pasture.

On June 22nd. 1964. the Minister for Local Economy—in accordance with the decree of the National Council Presidium of Gniewoszów from July 19th, 1957—signed a by-law commencing the closure of the cemetery. In 2014, thanks to the efforts of descendants of Gniewoszów Jews and the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, a partial fence was built. The borders of the cemetery in places that were not fenced were marked with stones. At one of the gate pillars, a memorial plaque was erected commemorating the local Jewish community. Several dozen recovered tombstones (list available at http://cmentarze-zydowskie.pl/gniewoszow.htm) were affixed to the wall. In 2019, another plaque was installed commemorating the victims of the 1945 killings. The cemetery is owned by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage. It is part of the local and voivodeship register of historical landmarks, but not the register of immovable monuments.

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