Mstow Jewish Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery in Mstów is located about 950 metres north-west of the town centre, on the west side of Kilińskiego Street, near the Warta River, and covers a plot of land shaped like a trapezoid, with an area of approximately 0.25 hectares. Moszek Szymonowicz Grylak purchased the land for the cemetery on June 20, 1885, from Tekla Banasiewicz. On December 10, 1886, he sold it to the Jewish community. On September 5, 1887, the Chief Governor of Warsaw approved the application of the Jewish community to establish a cemetery. The cemetery was in use until World War II. The Germans carried out executions there during the war and in the summer of 1943, they shot seven Jews. By request of the German mayor, some matzevot were used to harden roads and pavements.

In 1947, following the intervention of the Jewish Congregation in Częstochowa, 95 whole and about 30 damaged tombstones which were used in the pavement at Kościelna Street, were transferred back to the cemetery. In the following decades, the cemetery fell into further disrepair. The area was used as a pasture and as a playground. The tombstones were used as construction material, and some of them were thrown into the Warta River. In 2015, as part of the project “Places of Remembrance and Oblivion. Interdisciplinary research in the northern territories of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland,” about 100 decayed matzevot were recovered from the riverbed and secured in the Mstów Commune Office’s warehouse. As a result of the destruction, there are only single decayed tombstones in the cemetery. The boundaries of the cemetery are visible because of the rubble of the stone fence. The area is covered with grass. There is an information board at the cemetery. The facility is listed in the Municipal and Provincial Register of Monuments.

The development of Jewish settlement in Mstów began in the 19th century. In 1860, 410 Jews (27% of the total population) lived in the town, and 740 in 1921 (37.6%). Most of Mstów’s Jews were killed at the end of 1942 by the Germans in Treblinka.