Knyszyn Jewish Cemetery

The first written mention of Jews in Knyszyn was in 1605, though significant Jewish settlement only began in the 18th century. In 1921, 1,235 Jews lived in the town, most of whom were murdered by the Germans in Treblinka in November 1942. The cemetery is located about 1.5 km from the centre of Knyszyn, within the administrative borders of the village of Grady, in a complex of former ponds of the residence of King Zygmunt August. It covers an irregularly shaped plot with an area of about 2.8 hectares. There are water reservoirs in parts of the cemetery. The cemetery was likely established at the beginning of the 18th century and the Jewish community received official permission to use it on April 14, 1786. At that time, the area was fenced. Around 1925, the Jewish community purchased a neighbouring plot and established the new cemetery. In the interwar period, there was a building next to the cemetery that served either as a watchman’s apartment or as a funeral house. The cemetery served as a burial place until World War II. 74 Jews who were murdered on November 2, 1942 during the deportation of the Jewish population are buried there. The gradual decay of the cemetery presumably began during the war, a process in which the local population participated. The neglected cemetery gradually became overgrown with wild vegetation. Since 2012, the cemetery has been taken care of by the Zygmunt August Regional Association in Knyszyn. At the initiative of the association, the vegetation was cut down, the graves of Holocaust victims were marked, and a tourist trail was created, as well as periodic cleaning of the cemetery. About 680 tombstones mostly made of fieldstone granite are preserved within the cemetery. The oldest identified tombstone dates to 1806. The owner of the cemetery is the State Treasury, the user is the Knyszyn Commune, and it is listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. A partial list of tombstones is available at https://cemetery.jewish.org.pl/list/c_71/ile_0