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Stoczek Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Masovian Voivodeship
District
Węgrów
Settlement
Stoczek
Site address
22, Węgrowska Street.
GPS coordinates
52.5422112, 21.8958056
Perimeter length
377 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
The former cemetery site is not fenced, the only fenced area is that adjacent to the cemetery lapidarium. Which has a brick wall along Węgrowska Street and is fenced on the other sides with a wire mesh fence, attached to iron posts, 1.5-1.7m high.
Preservation condition
Demolished Jewish cemetery that has not been built over
General site condition
The Jewish cemetery of Stoczek is situated in a wooded area in the western part of the village. The area is overgrown with trees and bushes and has received no maintenance. In1984-1985 a plot of land, adjacent to the former cemetery site from the east, was fenced and preserved as a lapidarium. Pieces of tombstones were brought to the site and a Holocaust memorial was erected on the place of the mass grave.
Number of existing gravestones
No tombstones in situ have been preserved. In the lapidarium there are 10 standing intact tombstones (including 4 obelisks) and 20+ fragments of tombstones, placed by two sides of an alley, leading to the Holocaust memorial.
Date of oldest tombstone
1903
Date of newest tombstone
1912
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
No

Historical overview

Jewish settlement in Stoczek probably began to develop in the post-partition period. 228 Jews lived in the town in 1856, and 1,221 in 1921 (74% of the entire population), most of whom were murdered in 1942 by the Germans in Treblinka. The cemetery is located about 350 metres southwest of Plac Wolności (the former market square), on the northern side of Węgrowska Street, and covers a plot of 0.93 hectares (ha). The cemetery was probably established in the 19th century. During World War II, people killed during the liquidation action in 1942 and who were caught in various hiding places in the following months were buried in the cemetery. The cemetery was used for carrying out executions as well. According to some estimates, about 200 victims were buried there in a mass grave and, after 1945, the Jews who survived the Holocaust erected a monument to mark it.

The cemetery was probably devastated during the war and continued to fall into disrepair in the following decades. From 1956-1960, the area was fenced, but the fence was eventually destroyed. An energy line was also built which runs through the cemetery. In 1984-1985, the authorities of Stoczek fenced parts of the cemetery (an area of about 0.10 hectares) and placed the preserved tombstones in there. The area was also planted with trees and shrubs. Currently, within the fenced part, there are tombstones and fragments of tombs with inscriptions (the oldest identified one is dated 1903), about 30-40 granite stones without inscriptions, and 4 sandstone obelisks without inscription plates. In the northern part is the mass grave of the Holocaust victims with a monument in the form of a black granite stele, and with an inscription in Yiddish and Polish. The communal services maintain and clean the lapidarium. A building of the Municipal Establishment is (probably) now in the eastern part of the cemetery. The rest of the cemetery is unfenced and overgrown with wild vegetation. The boundaries of the cemetery are imperceptible. The cemetery is listed in the Provincial Register of Monuments.

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