Jezow Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Lodzkie Voivodeship
District
Brzeziny
Settlement
Jeżów
Site address
The cemetery is located on Rawska Street. Between buildings No.37 and 41.
GPS coordinates
51.8127141, 19.9775219
Perimeter length
212 meters
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
There is a metal fence about 1.7m high.
Preservation condition
Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The destroyed Jewish cemetery is located between the buildings on Rawska Street. The area is fenced. Three tombstones have been preserved. The site is extremely overgrown with tall grass.
Number of existing gravestones
There are 3 tombstones at the site.
Date of oldest tombstone
N/A
Date of newest tombstone
N/A
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Other
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

The cemetery is located approximately 450 metres southeast of the town square, on the northern side of Rawska Street, and occupies a trapezoid plot of land with an acreage of approximately 0.3 hectares. There is no information cemetery’s establishment date, though it was presumably established in the 1870s. Its destruction most likely began during World War II. Residents of Jeżów also stole tombstones and using them for construction and paving porches. The cemetery was used as pasture and farmland.

At the beginning of the 1990s, thanks to the efforts of Canadian Bernard Gold, the cemetery was maintained and surrounded by a metal fence. Currently the cemetery has several partially destroyed flat tombstones and partial walls. Cement foundations of 2.5 by 3.5 square meters are still visible and are possibly the remains of an ohel. The fence is progressively falling into disrepair. The cemetery is overgrown will tall grass, thick lilac bushes, and brambles, making it difficult to move around. Littering is another problem in the cemetery. There is no available information on the cemetery’s ownership status. The cemetery is part of the county and voivodeship registry of historical landmarks. It is not part of the registry of immovable monuments.

Jewish settlement in Jeżów began towards the end of the 18th century. There were 27 Jews Jeżów in 1793, 254 in 1845, and 455 in 1872. In the 19th century Jeżów was home to tzadik Jakow Landau, son of Awraham from Ciechanów. In the 1921 census, 1,048 residents were recorded as followers of Judaism (39.5% of the total population). In the autumn of 1941, the Germans created a ghetto in Jeżów. The Jews were later transported to the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. Some of them died from disease and starvation, and most of the rest were killed by Germans in Treblinka. In 1945 there were 937 Jews in Jeżów, and 25 in 1955.