Wegrow Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Masovian Voivodeship
District
Węgrów
Settlement
Węgrów
Site address
10, Bohaterów Warszawy Street.
GPS coordinates
52.395087, 22.0104432
Perimeter length
672 metres.
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
No fenced.
Preservation condition
Demolished and overbuilt Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The Jewish cemetery of Węgrów is situated in the south-western urban industrial part of the town. The area is demolished and overbuilt with a parking lot, a soccer field and a school complex (No.10 Bohaterów Warszawy Street). Along the eastern side of Berka Joselewicza Street there is a memorial site with a Holocaust memorial and a lapidarium, which is situated outside of the former cemetery area. No traces of the cemetery have been preserved except for the tombstones in the lapidarium.
Number of existing gravestones
No tombstones have survived in situ. Around 300 tombstones are preserved in the lapidarium around the Holocaust memorial. A list of the tombstones is available at https://tinyurl.com/yyu7th83.
Date of oldest tombstone
1819 (photo by ESJF), 1739 (photo by https://cemetery.jewish.org.pl).
Date of newest tombstone
1911 (photo by ESJF), 1932 (photo by https://cemetery.jewish.org.pl).
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Private
Preserved construction on site
There is a lapidarium and a Holocaust Memorial.
Drone surveys
No

Historical overview

The first records of Jews in Węgrów date to 1537. In 1921, 5,148 Jews lived in the town (60% of the entire population), most of whom were murdered by in September 1942 by the Germans in Treblinka. The cemetery is located about 500 metres south-west of the Market Square, on the contemporary Bohaterów Warszawy Street (formerly Błonie Chrześcijańskie Street, in the interwar period), Przemysłowa Street, and Berka Joselewicza Street.

The cemetery covers an area of approximately 5.5 hectares. The cemetery was probably established around 1620. Until the 18th century, people who died in places near Warsaw were also buried there. In the 19th century, the area was enclosed with a wooden fence. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were tombstones made of granite fieldstone and sandstone slabs, and a one-floor building, presumably a funeral house or an ohel.

During World War II, the Germans carried out executions in the cemetery. At either the end of 1943 or in the first half of 1944, the remains of the victims were exhumed and burned. the last person to presumably be buried in the cemetery was Icchak Kreda, killed at the end of 1944 while trying to regain family property. The devastation of the cemetery likely began during the war. In the period of the Polish People’s Republic, the area was built over. The buildings of the State Machinery Center and the Complex of Vocational Schools were built there. The boundaries of the cemetery are now imperceptible.

In 1982, at the initiative of the Social Committee for the Protection of Cemeteries at Berka Joselewicza Street, a monument was unveiled, in form of the Ten Commandment tablets, around which about 120 preserved tombstones were placed. The owner of the cemetery is the Jewish Community in Warsaw. The list of preserved tombstones is available at https://cemetery.jewish.org.pl/list/c_27/?ile=1.

Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery
Węgrów Jewish Cemetery