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Plawno Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Lodzkie Voivodeship
District
Radomsko
Settlement
Pławno
Site address
The cemetery is located on Przedborska Street, halfway to Zagórze. The plot of land’s registration number is 249.
GPS coordinates
50.9849643, 19.4741893
Perimeter length
423 meters
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
No fence
Preservation condition
Unfenced Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The cemetery is located in the forest. The boundaries are marked by low metal posts. Tombstones have been preserved, and there are fragments and foundations of matzevot at the site. There is a lapidarium made of a few tombstones as well.
Number of existing gravestones
33 tombstones have survived, most of them are fragments of matzevot or the base of tombstones. 4 pieces of matzevot have been placed in the lapidarium.
Date of oldest tombstone
1897
Date of newest tombstone
N/A
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
Other
Preserved construction on site
There is a Lapidarium of some of the tombstones.
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

Jews began to settle in Pławno no later than the 18th century. A major expansion of the Jewish community began in the 19th century. In 1921, 566 Jews (36% of the total population) lived in Pławno. Most of them were killed by the Germans at Treblinka in 1942.
The cemetery is located approximately 1.5 km northeast of the town center, approximately 80 m north of Przedborska Street, on the road leading to the village of Strzała. It is unknown when the cemetery was specifically established, but it surely dates back to the first half of the 19th century. It was not included in the Topographic Map of the Kingdom of Poland from 1839, however. Some of its burial costs were included in the local parish records for 1845 – 1846.

The cemetery was in active use until the Second World War. Some of the victims of German oppression were buried there, including Rabbi Icek Rabinowish and the Haberman family, who were killed in the park at Pławno estate in 1939, as well as at least 13 people killed in Kruszyn in 1939. Presumably the destruction of the cemetery began during the war, and continued throughout the following decades.

Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, activists from the Gidel Friendship Society began to maintain the cemetery, and created a lapidary out of several preserved matzevot. Beside the lapidary is a stele with the inscription: „Memory place for Jews resting here – members of our community. Gidle 1993”.

The cemetery includes a memorial monument from 1993, over a dozen sandstone stelae in varying degrees of preservation relocated to the original corresponding burial sites (a partial list available at https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/miejscowosci/p/1266-plawno/115-pamiec-w-kamieniu/28028-cmentarz-zydowski-w-plawnie-ul-strzala), singular destroyed tombstones, and concrete-brick grave markers. The oldest identified matzevah dates back to 1864. The original configuration of the cemetery is unknown. The area is overgrown with coniferous trees. The cemetery is now part of the local registry of historical landmarks.

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