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Laskarzew Jewish Cemetery

Country

Poland

Region

Masovian Voivodeship

District

Garwolin

Settlement

Łaskarzew

Site address

7-9, Solidarności Street.

GPS coordinates

51.7975022, 21.5885103

Perimeter length

295 metres

Is the cemetery demolished

yes

Type and height of existing fence

There is a concrete wall (1m high) with decorative concrete stars of David. The cemetery was fenced in 1986 by the National Council of the City and Municipality in Łaskarzew.

Preservation condition

Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery

General site condition

The Jewish cemetery of Laskarew is situated approximately one km north of the market street (Rynek). The cemetery area is divided into two parts by Biskupa Łaskarza Street. The northern part is overgrown with tall grasses, and the southern – with trees and dense thicket. The left pillar of the gate holds a metal memorial plaque. Between 1960-1980 restoration works were carried on the initiative of Zygmunt Warszawer, a local Holocaust survivor. The cemetery has some preserved tombstones and a Holocaust Memorial. Graffiti was seen on Matzevot, the wall and the memorial. As well as the theft of Magen David from the walls.

Number of existing gravestones

0. The 8 tombstones, situated around the Holocaust memorial, were brought to the cemetery in the 1960’s from Sobieni-Jeziory by Zygmunt Warszawer to create a decorative “lapidarium”

Date of oldest tombstone

1864

Date of newest tombstone

1907, 1911

Urgency of erecting a fence

Low

Land ownership

Municipality

Preserved construction on site

Drone surveys

While the first mentions of a Jewish presence in Łaskarzew date to the mid-18th century, owing to bans on Jewish settlement, Jews only began to settle in Łaskarzew one hundred years later. In 1921, 1,251 Jews lived in Łaskarzew, most of whom were murdered in 1942 by the Germans in Treblinka.

The cemetery is located about 900 m from the town centre, near the contemporary Solidarności Street and Biskupa Łazarza Street. It was likely established around 1863 when Jews from Łaskarzew applied for independence from the Synagogue District in Garwolin, though the exact date is unknown.
During World War II, the Germans carried out executions at the cemetery. In the fall of 1943, the gendarmes from Sobolewo shot about 45 people in the cemetery who were caught in the surrounding forests. The devastation of the cemetery likely began during the war. All the tombstones were removed, and the wall was torn down. In the period of the Polish People’s Republic, a transformer station was established in the cemetery.

In the 1980’s, at the initiative of Zygmunt Warszawer, a monument commemorating Holocaust victims was erected at the cemetery. In 1987-1988, with the support of the National Council of the town and the Łaskarzewo Commune, a part of the cemetery was fenced with a low wall and was cleaned. Several tombstones were brought from Sobienie-Jeziora and placed in the cemetery. A ceremony for the completion of the work took place on November 14, 1988. The cemetery has since suffered further degradation. The area is littered and overgrown with wild vegetation. One of the plaques from the monument for the commemoration of Holocaust victims was torn off. The iron entrance gateway is gone, and the metal Stars of David were torn out of the fence in several places. The information board at the entrance is scratched up.

There is no data on the ownership status. The list of preserved tombstones is available at https://cemetery.jewish.org.pl/list/c_12