Home - Surveys - Poland - Masovian Voivodeship

Serock Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Masovian Voivodeship
District
Legionowo
Settlement
Serock
Site address
132, Pułtuska Street.
GPS coordinates
52.52532, 21.07368
Perimeter length
446 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
The southern part of the cemetery has an iron fence with concrete block posts (1.5-1.7m high).
Preservation condition
Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The Jewish cemetery of Serock is situated in the village of Wierzbica. The cemetery is located in a forest area along the western the bank of the river Narew. The site is overgrown with trees and bushes. The southern part of the cemetery area is fenced and maintained as a Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was demolished during WW2, the remaining fragments of tombstones have been placed into a wall lapidarium. The information board, installed in 2014, is also embedded into the lapidarium.
Number of existing gravestones
0. Nowadays, no tombstones have preserved in their original places. 21 fragments are embedded into the wall lapidarium, installed in 2014, by the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage in collaboration with the FODZ.
Date of oldest tombstone
1917 (fragment in the lapidarium)
Date of newest tombstone
1937 (fragment in the lapidarium)
Urgency of erecting a fence
Low
Land ownership
Other
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
No

Historical overview

Jewish settlement in Serock began at the end of the 18th century. In 1921, 2,295 Jews lived in the town, constituting 48.9% of the entire population. In December 1939, the Germans expelled all Jewish residents from Serock, most of whom ended up in Biała Podlaska, Międzyrzec Podlaski, Łomazy, and Łuków and were murdered over time.

The cemetery of the former Jewish community in Serock is located about 1.2 km north of the market square, within the boundaries of the village of Wierzbica, on the bank of the Narew River, near Czeska Street. The cemetery was established around 1821-1822. In 1828, there were two buildings in the cemetery, likely ohels for great rabbis or a similar such structure. In 1884, the area of the cemetery was 656.60 square metres, and by 1916, it was enlarged to 1.2 hectares. During World War II, the cemetery was destroyed and deteriorated over the following years. By order of the Germans, some tombstones were used for construction purposes, including for building stairs on the Barbarka Hill. After the war, several plots of land were separated from the cemetery. In the 1970’s, the cemetery was used as part of the “Narew” Holiday Centre and the remains of tombstones were likely removed during its construction. Swings, barbecues, and gazebos were also placed in the cemetery. In 1992, local community activists moved several dozen matzevot from Barbarka Hill and placed them back in the “Narew” Centre. In 2014, the cemetery was fenced and a lapidarium was built with the preserved matzevot. The project was carried out by the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad and the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage with the support of private donors.

The owner of the cemetery is the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage and the cemetery is listed in the Provincial Register of Monuments. A partial list of the preserved tombstones is available at https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/miejscowosci/s/603-serock/115-pamiec-w-kamieniu/31539-cięcz-zydowski-w-serocku-ul-czeska.

Back to the map