Sobkow Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship
District
Jędrzejów
Settlement
Sobków
Site address
The cemetery is located at the junction of Piaskowa and Krzywa streets.
GPS coordinates
50.695333, 20.45852
Perimeter length
426 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
No fence
Preservation condition
Unfenced Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The cemetery has at least dozen matzevot standing in situ and more than a dozen others have broken or fallen to the ground. There are fragments as well, one of them is away from the cemetery, in the woods, next to a cross. The cemetery is unfenced and surrounded by houses.
Number of existing gravestones
78 fragments of tombstones have been preserved. Many of them do not have readable inscription with dates, the actual newest gravestones likely dates to later than 1848.
Date of oldest tombstone
1817
Date of newest tombstone
1848
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
State
Preserved construction on site
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

The first records of Jewish inhabitants of Sobków come from the 17th century, and significant development of the Jewish community took place in the 19th century. In 1921, about 565 Jews lived in Sobków. The majority of them were exterminated in Treblinka in 1942.

The cemetery is situated about 400m south-east of the town center, at Leśna Street and Piaskowa Street, in the close vicinity to the Catholic cemetery. The cemetery is located on an irregularly shaped plot of ground of about 1.60 hectares.

The cemetery was likely established in the second half of the 18th century when there was a kehilla in Sobków, however the exact date is unknown. In the records of the Sobków synagogue fund from 1845, a funeral income of 10 rubles was noted. In the interwar period, the cemetery was fenced and its value was estimated at PLN 7,000.

The cemetery has been severely devastated. The wall, ohels, and almost all tombstones were destroyed. In 1986, the Municipal Office in Sobków planned to plant trees at the cemetery. According to the document from the Municipal Office in Sobków, at that time the area was tidy and marked with a plaque with the inscription: “Jewish cemetery. Protected facility. The last funeral took place in the spring of 1942. Destroyed during the war in 1939-1945. Currently, it is ruined, not used since 1945. Littering and destroying the facility will be punished.” In 1987, the Municipal Office in Sobków intended to plant a hedgerow between the border of the cemetery and the nearby landfill site. It is noted in the cemetery records from 1987, that there was a pasture in the cemetery, and the existing threat was “no interest of the authorities”.

Currently, within the cemetery, there are around 30-40 tombstones in various conditions, in the form of stela made of sandstone or conglomerate. In the central area, there are two destroyed ohels belonging to either rabbis or tzadiks unknown. A part of the stone wall has been preserved.

The owner of the cemetery is the State Treasury. The facility is listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments (entry No. A.160, November 5, 1990).