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Stawiski Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Podlaskie Voivodeship
District
Kolno
Settlement
Stawiski
Site address
The cemetery doesn’t have its own address. Head 1.2km south-east from Stawiski via Łomżyńska Street, stop on the eastern side of the road. The cemetery will be in a forested area 200-250m from the street by the bank of Mogilna River, the left-bank tributary of the Dzierzbia River.
GPS coordinates
53.3706303, 22.1644878
Perimeter length
603 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
No fence
Preservation condition
Unfenced Jewish cemetery
General site condition
It is a devastated and officially closed Jewish cemetery. It is located in a forested area outside the city borders and is surrounded by farming fields. The territory of the graveyard is densely overgrown with the trees and bushes and is barely accessible. Only a few tombstones have been preserved.
Number of existing gravestones
15 intact tombstones and their fragments were found.
Date of oldest tombstone
1842
Date of newest tombstone
1872
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
Other
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

The first mentions of Jewish residents in Stawiski date to the 17th century. In 1765 there was pre-kehilla in the city, and a full kehilla was established at the start of the 19th century. In 1921 there were 1,920 Jewish residents in Stawiski (63% of the total population), the majority of whom were killed in 1941 during a pogrom and in the mass executions, as well as in Treblinka in 1942.

The cemetery is located approximately 1.1 km southeast of the city on a rise, and approximately 200 metres (m) east of Łomżyńska Street. The cemetery is located on a plot shaped like an irregular polygon, including the cemetery reserve on the western side, with an acreage of about 4.5 hectares. There are remains of an early Medieval settlement with a diameter of about 60 m and with embankments as high as 2 m in the northwest corner of the cemetery. The cemetery was surrounded by farmland and located near flood water on the north and east sides. The cemetery was most likely founded at the beginning of the 19th century. Over the next 100 years, the cemetery was used as the burial site for residents of Stawiski and nearby villages. It was the burial site for local rabbis including Chaim Myszkowski and Aron Dworski. The cemetery eventually fell into disrepair. Today there are some stelae made of granite in varying conditions (the oldest identified tombstone dates possibly to 1842), as well as concrete walls that used to surround the cemetery. The cemetery borders are partially clear thanks the remainders of the embankments and the surrounding wall. The area is wooded and overgrown with brush, making it difficult to reach many parts of the cemetery. Access to the area is also limited due to watercourses. The cemetery is periodically flooded due to local beaver dams. In 2009, members of the Warsaw Jewish Community relocated some of the recovered tombstones due to flooding. The cemetery is owned by the Stawiski local government, and it is part of the county and voivodeship register of historical landmarks and immovable monuments.

 

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