WARSAW - JEWISH CEMETERY AT TARGOWEK

The first Jewish cemetery in Warsaw used to be on the exact place where the Bristol Hotel is. The cemetery was being used until the Jews were thrown out of Warsaw, i.e. at the turn of the XVI century. For more than two hundred years Jews from Warsaw were being buried in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Sochaczew, Wegrow and Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki. The situation changed in the 80s of XVIII century, when at the initiative of a Warsaw banker, Szmul Zbytkower, with the consent of King Stanislaw August Poniatowski a new cemetery was created at the right bank of Vistula river. Bishop Michal Poniatowski gave his approval to inter the deceased at the new cemetery upon the condition that "every year Jews are to deliver 10 stones of suet each, for the parish church in Skaryszew on St. John's day". First official interments took place in 1784 although according to Ignacy Schipper, there were some burials many years before that date.

Since 1806, when another Warsaw Jewish cemetery was created (at Okopowa Str.), the one at Targówek district has been mainly a place for non-wealthy Jews burials. Nevertheless one can find gravestones of some personalities of high rank in the Jewish society. There are tombs of such families as the Bergsons, the Nissenbaums, the Sonnembergs and a grave of Szmul Zbytkower himself. Another well-known name written on one of the cemetery's tombstone is the one of Abraham Stern, a member of Warsaw Scientific Society and the inventor of a measuring triangle, an automatic threshingmachine and a sophisticated (for his times) counting machine. Stern was a great-grandfather of Antoni Slonimski.

During World War II the Germans devastated the cemetery and they used headstones for construction works. A ceremonial entombment of Jewish mortal remains (exhumed from various places in Warsaw) to a mass-grave took place in December 1947. After WWII the cemetery was deteriorating for many years. There were trees planted at the site and hundreds of gravestones were dragged onto one place with tractors. In the 80s of XX century, on The Nissenbaums Foundation's initiative, the site was partially put in order and a high fence was build around it. Unfortunately, the renovation has not been finished. The cemetery was immortalized in a famous film "Europa, Europa", which was directed by Agnieszka Holland.

From the side of Sw. Wincentego Street there is a decorative gate with a relief of praying Jews just before their execution. The gate is closed almost at all times, but one may enter a cemetery from the side of Odrowoza Street. Unfortunately, the cemetery become a gathering place for the drags of society and visitors are often object of assaults or attacks. It is rather safe though to visit the cemetery in bigger groups of people. Sometimes Warsaw guides organise tours to the cemetery free of charge.

Text: Krzysztof Bielawski
Photography: Piotr Gęca (more photos of this author can be found on this web side: http://www.zoh1w2.republika.pl/)
Translated by Katarzyna Modrzejewska