In the first decades of the community’s existence, including the period of the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland), it belonged to the kehilla and synagogue supervision in Kuczbork. The Jews of Żuromin started to make efforts to become independent and establish their own kehilla in the 1820s. They finally achieved their goal in 1843, with the oldest synagogue in Żuromin constructed the same year. The first two thirds of the 19th century marked a period of rapid development of the community, which boasted over 400 members in 1827 (30% of the total population) and as many as nearly 600 (38%) on the eve of the January Uprising. The Jewish district of Żuromin developed around today’s Piłsudskiego Square. In the 19th century, many local Jews made a living from trade in cereals and horses, as well as from processing agricultural produce and other foodstuffs and exporting the goods to other centres, mainly to Gdańsk. The commercial activities of the Jewish community were greatly aided by the convenient location of the town near the country border.

The turn of the 20th century laid the groundwork for the development of Jewish political life in Żuromin (with the foundation of first socialist and Zionist cells), which came to full bloom in the interwar period. Apart from the local branches of the biggest Jewish parties (Agudath, Mizrachi, Bund, General Zionists, Poale Zion), the town boasted a number of local organisations and institutions, including the Grosser Library, Society for Combating Illiteracy (Polish: Towarzystwo Zwalczania Analfabetyzmu), I.L. Peretz Library, B. Borochov Library, People’s Bank, Merchants’ Bank, Social Self-Aid Fund (Polish: Kasa Samopomocy Społecznej). The Orthodox Agudath enjoyed the greatest influence in Żuromin and was the dominant force in the communal authorities. The 1930s saw growing support for the leftist Bund (with its representative gaining a seat on the community board in 1936) and the Zionists. In reborn Poland, the 2,000-strong Jewish community constituted a half of the town’s population (48% in 1921). The majority of artisan workshops and stores (selling shoes, groceries, building materials) were Jewish-owned.

After the outbreak of World War II and the German invasion of western Poland, Żuromin was incorporated directly into the Third Reich (Regierungsbezirk Zichenau in East Prussia). The Germans immediately started to demolish the local synagogues. At the beginning of November 1939, all Jews residing in Żuromin were expelled from the town. A fire siren sounded at dawn, after which everyone was given ten minutes to leave their flats (accompanied by live music played by a military band). They were first directed to Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki and then farther to Warsaw. Some Jews were sent to the camp in Pomiechówek and later deported to various localities in the General Government (Jadowo, Legionowo, Łomazy, Warsaw) in 1940. The same year, another group from Żuromin joined Jewish people from Sierpc, Rypin, Raciąż, Bieżun, and Dobrzyń in the Szreńsk Ghetto. The local authorities discontinued deportations to the General Government in the spring of 1941. Instead, it was decided that the Jewish population would be concentrated in a smaller number of large ghettos. The Jews of Żuromin were deported mainly in the ghettos of Ciechanów and Mława. In November 1942, the prisoners of the closed districts were sent to the Nazi German extermination camps in Treblinka and Auschwitz.

The Description

The Jewish cemetery in Żuromin is located north-west of the town centre, at today’s Mazurska Street and Stefana Żeromskiego Street. The exact date of its establishment has not been determined, but it mostly likely happened in the 1840s, soon after the formation of the local religious community. Beforehand, the Jews of Żuromin had buried their dead in the cemetery in Kuczbork. The Jewish necropolis in Żuromin most certainly was already in use in 1859, as preserved documents from that year mention the construction of a fence around its premises.

During World War II, the cemetery was almost completely destroyed by the Germans, and suffered further devastation in the post-war decades. The cemetery grounds were stripped of all tombstones and fell into a state of extreme neglect and oblivion.

Restoration works at the cemetery began in the spring of 2009, thanks to the cooperation of Jews associated with Żuromin and the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage. The necropolis was fenced and cleaned up. The works were concluded with a ceremony held in July of the same year. It was attended by Jews of Żuromin, members of the Jewish Religious Community in Warsaw and the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, representatives of local authorities and clergy, as well as many residents of Żuromin.

In April 2011, two commemorative plaques were placed on the wall by the entrance to the cemetery. They bear the names of ca. 300 Jewish families which lived in Żuromin before World War II. Founded by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland and the Żuromin Landsmanshaft in the United States, the plaques are meant to preserve the memory of the people whose tombstones have disappeared from the cemetery. The memorial is also dedicated to Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Żuromin. The unveiling ceremony was attended by descendants of Żuromin Jews from the United States.

At present, the Żuromin cemetery covers an elongated rectangular plot of less than a hectare. It is fenced but devoid of any surviving tombstones, sparsely overgrown with trees.

Właściciel praw autorskich do opisu: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN.