Milakowo Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Country
Poland
Region
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
District
Ostróda
Settlement
Miłakowo
Site address
Cemetery doesn’t have an address. Jewish cemetery is situated by the western side of Kaszubska street and is a part of Parish Cemetery of the Archdiocese of Warmia at the Roman-Catholic Parish of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Kaszubska Street (in Polish: Cmentarz Parafialny Archidiecezji Warmińskiej przy Parafii Rzymskokatolickiej Podwyższenia Krzyża Świętego przy ulicy Kaszubskiej). No street number.
GPS coordinates
54.006636, 20.072077
Perimeter length
106 meters – perimeter of the historical cemetery area, 38 meters – perimeter of the Lapidarium area.
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
The whole Parish Cemetery area is fenced with different types of fence. Perimeter of the jewish lapidarium area is marked with concrete ground tile.
Preservation condition
Demolished and overbuilt Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The Jewish cemetery in Miłakowo is demolished. Most part of the former jewish cemetery area is irretrievably overbuilt by Christian graves of Parish Christian Cemetery and the monument dedicated to the victims of the 2010 Smolensk plane crash. All surrounding non-Jewish graves are relatively fresh (2010-20). No jewish tombstones have preserved in their original places. Currently there is a very small lapidarium area (about 100 sq m) with 6 tombstones inside the former jewish cemetery site at the back of the above-mentioned monument. The area is clean, tidy, very well-kept.
Number of existing gravestones
No tombstones have preserved in situ. 6 tombstones have been re-located in the lapidarium area, separated from the Jewish cemetery in 1989, and installed in the gravel. List of the personal data from preserved tombstones is available on http://cmentarze-zydowskie.pl/milakowo.htm
Date of oldest tombstone
1863
Date of newest tombstone
1909
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Other
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
No
Historical overview
The Jewish cemetery in Miłaków is located in the southern part of the city, on the west side of Kaszubska Street. According to unconfirmed sources, the cemetery was established in 1809 on a plot similar to a rectangle with an area of 0.20 ha.
The object underwent extensive destruction. On March 24, 1958, the state authorities issued a decision to close the cemetery. In the 1980s, its area was taken over by the municipal cemetery. The cemetery record form from 1982 stated: "The outline of the cemetery is illegible, the internal layout is illegible. The cemetery is in a devastated state, several slabs overturned. The cemetery may be liquidated because it is located within the area of the municipal cemetery under construction". At that time, the area was covered with dense vegetation, there were 22 tombstones: 3 from the first half of the 19th century, 9 from the second half of the 19th century, and 10 from the first half of the 20th century.
In 1988, the cemetery was entered into the register of immovable monuments. In 1989, a lapidarium consisting of six sandstone and terrazzo steles arranged in two rows was arranged on a fragment of the cemetery with an area of about 1 ares. The boundaries of the cemetery are unreadable, presumably its eastern part was taken over by a monument dedicated to Poles fighting for the freedom of their homeland and the victims of the Smolensk air crash, and the western part - by modern non-Jewish graves.
(K. Bielawski, cmentarze-zydowskie.pl)
