Wyszogrod New Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Poland
Region
Masovian Voivodeship
District
Płock
Settlement
Wyszogród
Site address
Adjacent to Pokoju and Niepodległości streets.
GPS coordinates
52.3901766, 20.2035785
Perimeter length
393 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
There are 4 brick gate posts (2m high), marking the entrance to the cemetery, with a memorial plaque.
Preservation condition
Unfenced Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The New Jewish cemetery of Wyszogród is situated in the eastern part of the town. It was destroyed during WW2 and then restored, the cemetery site is now a wooded area, overgrown with tall wild grasses. The area has no fence (a raised bank marks the boundary, but this is collapsed in many places) and borders Pokoju and Niepodległości Street from the west and south. There are several tombstones and a Holocaust memorial. Antisemitic graffiti was seen on the gates.
Number of existing gravestones
8. There are 2 standing intact and 6 fragments of tombstones, placed around the Holocaust memorial. There also is a modern memorial tombstone and a cenotaph dedicated to the Brzozowski family. Several matzevot from the cemetery, excavated from pavements in the city, can be seen in the Vistula Museum in Wyszogród.
Date of oldest tombstone
N/A
Date of newest tombstone
1905
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
No

Historical overview

The new Jewish cemetery in Wyszogród is located about 800 metres north-east of the market square, at the intersection of Pokoju Street and Niepodległości Street, next to the Catholic cemetery, and covers an irregular plot with an area of approximately 1.4 hectares. It was established around 1831 due to overcrowding in the old cemetery area and the cholera epidemic. During World War II, the cemetery was devastated. By order of the Germans, the matzevot were torn out and used to build curbs on the streets of Wyszogród, and some of them were taken to Bodzanów. After the war, the cemetery was taken care of by the District Jewish Committee which, in 1947, led to the unveiling of a monument commemorating the cemetery. In the following years, the cemetery fell into disrepair. In 1986, the City and Commune Office of Wyszogród, in a letter to the Committee for the Protection of Jewish Cemeteries and Monuments in Poland, informed about the plan to establish a green space at the cemetery. In 1989, thanks to the efforts of the Jews from Wyszogród living in the United States, an obelisk commemorating the local Jewish community was erected in the central part of the cemetery. On the side bordering Pokoju Street, the gate pillars were built. Until 1997, cleaning work was carried out thanks to the financial support of Marion Brzozowski from the United States. There are single tombstones within the cemetery. The area is unfenced and overgrown with wild vegetation. Several matzevot recovered from the city sidewalks are preserved in the Vistula River Museum in Wyszogród. The owner of the cemetery is the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage.

Jews lived in Wyszogród from at least the third decade of the 15th century. In the 1921 census, 2,465 Jews were registered in the town. In 1941, the Germans deported Jews from Wyszogród to Czerwińsk and Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki. Most of them were murdered a year later in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. After the war, until at least 1946, the Jewish Committee was active in Wyszogród.