Ilza Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
The first records of Jews in Iłża date to the second half of the 18th century. In 1765, there was a kehilla in the city, and the synagogue supervision was established in 1850. In 1921, 1,545 Jews lived in the town (33.9% of the total population), most of whom were murdered in October 1942 by the Germans in Treblinka.
The cemetery is located about 600 metres north-east of the city, and about 80 metres south of Kampanii Wrześniowej Street, on a hill, in the geodesic plot No. 18.3568 – an irregularly shaped plot of land with an area of approximately 1.5 hectares (ha). Initially, the Jews from Iłża were buried in Sienna, about 21 km away. In 1837, during the cholera pandemic, the Jewish community established an epidemic cemetery, and on March 9, 1840, the state authorities granted permission to bury all the dead from Iłża there. The cemetery was fenced no later than in 1839. The destruction of the cemetery likely began during World War II. All tombstones were removed, and the fence was pulled down. In 1985, only two matzevot fragments were found in the cemetery. On June 26, 1964, the Minister of Municipal Economy – following a resolution by the Presidium of the Municipal National Council of Iłża dated October 18, 1962 – signed an order to close the cemetery. The documentation stated that the cemetery covered an area of 1.5 ha, and the last burial took place in 1943. On October 30, 1962, Iłża authorities adopted a resolution to liquidate the cemetery and establish a park in its place. There is no order approving the resolution in the files of the Ministry of Municipal Economy stored in the Central Archives of Modern Records. In 2006, at the initiative of Jews from Iłża, the cemetery was fenced and cleaned up. A monument dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust was erected there, and an information board was placed at the entrance. There is no information about the ownership status of the plot. The cemetery is listed in the Provincial Register of Monuments.