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Nowogrod Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Podlaskie Voivodeship
District
Łomża
Settlement
Nowogród
Site address
Adjacent to 24B, Poległych Street. The cemetery is adjacent to the northern side of Poległych Street. The best entrance to cemetery area is next to private property at 24B, Poległych Street.
GPS coordinates
53.22580, 21.869395
Perimeter length
458 meters
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
No fence
Preservation condition
Unfenced Jewish cemetery
General site condition
In September 1939, the strategic location of the cemetery was used to defend the Narew River line. The army dug trenches (visible on esjf survey photos). In the following years, the cemetery was systematically devastated. No matzevot have survived. In 2005, one matzevah was found, and in 2007, more tombstones (used as foundations for the building at the foot of the hill, on the Narew River side), were recovered. In total 20 tombstones have returned to the cemetery.
Number of existing gravestones
No gravestones have been preserved in situ. 20 gravestones were returned to the cemetery in the years 2005-2007.
Date of oldest tombstone
1840
Date of newest tombstone
1930/1931
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
Other
Preserved construction on site
The cemetery is located in an urban area. The territory is clean, trees and bushes grown in the cemetery area, the tombstones are preserved and well visible. The cemetery does not have its own fence: a wire mesh fence belonging to the adjacent private properties delineates the northern and eastern sides of the graveyard; the southern side of the cemetery is adjacent to the road.
Drone surveys
No

Historical overview

Jews began to settle in Nowogród in the 19th century. In 1921, 514 Jews lived in the town, most of whom were murdered during World War II. The cemetery is in the southwestern part of the city, about 750 km from the market square, on the hill at Poległych Street. The cemetery covers an irregularly shaped geodetic plot No. 1048 with an area of approximately 1.08 hectares. The exact date of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown, though it is possible that it was established at the end of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th century. It certainly existed in 1836, when income from funerals was recorded in the budget of the Synagogue Supervision in Nowogród.

The cemetery was fenced before 1939. At the entrance, there was a building, which likely functioned either as a caretaker’s apartment or funeral house. The cemetery began to decay during World War II. In the area, the army established a defense base. Some of Nowogród’s residents contributed to the cemetery’s degradation and used the tombstones as grinding discs and building materials. All of the tombstones were removed, and the land was used for cattle grazing. In 2005, the participants of the Educational Camp of the Lauder Foundation brought a tombstone found in the town and placed it in the cemetery. In 2017, the authorities of Nowogród moved 18 tombstones extracted from the foundations of a private building to the cemetery.

There are currently 20 tombstones made of fieldstone granite, though they are not placed according to the correct burial locations. The cemetery’s boundaries are unmarked and unfenced. Trenches from World War II are visible the top of the hill in the cemetery A few tombstones were secured in the Adam Chętnik Open Air Museum of the Kurpie Region. There is an ongoing process to establish the ownership status of the cemetery. The cemetery is recorded in the provincial records of monuments.

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