Cmentarz żydowski w Złoczewie Jewish cemetery in Zloczew

The first Jews settled in Złoczew, a small town near Sieradz, in the 16 th century. At the start of the century, there existed a Jewish community and a House of Study, the so-called Beth Midrash. For many years, the Jews had constituted a majority there until the 19 th century when many Poles from Poznań and the neighbouring towns arrived. The Jewish community contributed to the economic prosperity of Złoczew.

Before the second world broke out, the Jewish population of Złoczew reached 2,067. The Nazis troops invaded the town in September 1939. Shortly afterwards, they burned it down and slaughtered nearly 200 people three-fourths of whom were Jewish. The youngest of them was three-year old Fajwu¶ Szczukowski. Chana, a Jewish mentally disabled girl, was burned alive at the age of 19. The first massacre's victims were buried in mass graves in a local Jewish cemetery.

The first deportation of the Złoczew Jews took place in October 1939. Some of them were transported to a ghetto in Lublin to be later taken to a concentration camp in Majdanek. The next 1,400 Jews were moved to ŁódĽ and Zduńska Wola in 1940. Nearly 400 Jews who remained in Złoczew were confined to a ghetto. Those who survived the nightmare of a ghetto life were transported to a death camp in Chełmno nad Nerem in August 1942.

The Jewish cemetery in Złoczew is located in the forest at Cegielniana Street. The books of the kehilla refer to a purchase of land for burial purposes in 1530. It means that the local beit olam is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Poland. In the past, the locals took pride in the fact that a few renowned rabbis were buried there.

During the second world war, Shoah victims were buried in the cemetery. In September, nearly 150 people murdered by the Nazis in the first days of occupation were buried in four mass graves. The youngest victim, Fajwel Szczukowski, was three years old, the oldest, Kajla Gutman, was ninety three.

Regrettably, only scarce remnants of the cemetery exist now. The following is a description we received from our local correspondent: "In the first days of September 1939, the town of Złoczew along with the Jewish cemetery were totally bombed by the Nazis. The only reason was that the Wehrmacht was shooting a propaganda newsreel for the Reich. The Nazis attempted to annihilate the Jewish community and used the remaining gravestones to build roads. The older Złoczew dwellers recall that before the war there were more than three thousand gravestones of which only two have survived. They are looked after by locals. Recently, a Jewish community from the US has taken an interest in them."