Zwolen Jewish Cemetery

The first records of Jews in Zwoleń date to the 16th century. In 1921, 3,787 Jews lived in the town (51.2% of the total population), most of whom were murdered in 1942 by the Germans in Treblinka.

The cemetery is located approximately 470 metres northeast of the city centre, on a hill on Chopina Street, and covers a trapezoidal plot of land with an area of approximately 2 hectares. The cemetery was likely established at the end of the 16th or beginning of the 17th century. The first known records of its existence come from a 1661 provincial inspection and from the privilege issued by King Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki in 1671. In the 19th century, the cemetery was fenced with a wooden fence, and there was a wooden mortuary as well several wooden ohels. During World War II, executions and burials of Holocaust victims were carried out in cemetery. About 100 (or about 200 according to other sources) bodies of people murdered during the 1942 deportation are buried there. During the war, the cemetery was gradually destroyed. By order of the Germans, some tombstones were used to pave the road to Puławy. After 1945, a number of matzevot remained in the cemetery, though they were gradually stolen. On June 23, 1964, the Minister of Municipal Economy, following the resolution of the Presidium of the Municipal National Council in Zwoleń dated October 19, 1962, signed a decree on the closure and early liquidation of the cemetery. In the following years, a park was built in the cemetery. The last remaining tombstones were removed and buried. Currently, the park is neglected and overgrown with untreated vegetation. In 2014, during reconnaissance carried out by the “From the Depths” Foundation, destroyed matzevot were discovered underground. There is no form of commemoration of any kind. Single tombstones are held in the Regional Museum in Zwoleń.