Over the course of the 19th century, Jews became the largest ethnic and religious group in Rejowiec. In 1904, there were anti-Semitic riots. In 1915, the settlement was burned down by the retreating Russian troops. The Jewish community in Rejowiec was then merged with the one in Siedliszcze.

In 1920, 2,506 Jews lived in Rejowiec. In the interwar period, there was a synagogue, a prayer house, a mikvah and a religious school. The position of Zionist groups was growing. Anti-Semitic attitudes intensified in the surroundings, which was reflected in subsequent incidents in the 1930s.

During World War II, Rejowiec found itself under German occupation. In 1940, the Germans established the Judenrat and then established a ghetto. It covered the area of Niecała and Zacisze streets and the western part of the market square in between Reja and Zwierzyński streets. In 1941, there were also Jews from Lublin and Kraków there. They were forcibly employed, among others, to work on the land on the Budny estate and in the sawmill in Zawadówka. In the same year, the Germans burned religious books in the market square and destroyed the synagogue and the house of prayer. In 1942, most of the ghetto prisoners were sent to the German Nazi extermination camp in Sobibór, and the remaining ones were transferred to the labor camp in Krychów. After the displacement of Polish Jews, the ghetto in Rejowiec was transformed into a transit ghetto for Jews from Western Europe, including those from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as from Hungary and Germany. The final liquidation of the ghetto took place in 1943. The Jews were then deported to the German Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek; the last 16 people were murdered by the Germans in 1944, when the frontline was already approaching the town. After the end of World War II, a group of saved Jews returned here, but most of them emigrated soon thereafter.

The Description

The Jewish cemetery in Rejowiec is located at Sportowa street, at its characteristic right-angle turn, opposite the Catholic cemetery. Despite its currently large area (1.44 ha), historically it was even larger; part of it was taken over by contemporary single-family buildings.

The cemetery was established in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Its last expansion took place on 24.05.1933. It was almost completely destroyed by the Germans during the occupation of World War II. The tombstones were used as paving slabs. The Germans committed the crime of genocide against the Jews here. In the 1950s, the cemetery area was plowed and sown with rye. Allotment gardens were created in places where mass graves were located.

The cemetery was tidied up in 2003. Thanks to the efforts of the family of Mordechaj and Sara Pechter from Baltimore, a metal fence with a gate was built. A monument was built from fragments of broken matzevas, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. The opening ceremony of the cemetery took place on August 19, 2003. Former residents of Rejowiec, currently residing in Israel, took part in it.

At present, the only object in the cemetery is the above-mentioned monument-lapidarium in a form similar to three matzevas. According to information obtained during the NID visit in 2018, fragments of a dozen or so matzevas are located on the property of one of the families living in Rejowiec. The cemetery area is maintained on an ad hoc basis by mowing and burning some grass and weeds.

Author of the note: Magda Lucima

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