Previously, they had used the cemetery in Karczew, over a dozen kilometres away. The cemetery in Radość was set up on private land in the area of the so-called Zbójna Góra, by former 3 Maja Street. As it transpires from later documents, the cemetery began to function around 1917. It was used by Jews from Falenica as well as Radość, Michalin, and Wiązowna.

The cemetery was surrounded partially with a wall and partially with barbed wire fence (from the side of the pasture). At the end of the 1930s, the barbed wire was replaced with a 2.5-metre-high plank fence. The caretaker lived in a small building in the cemetery, and the keys to the gate were held by the caretaker and the Jewish community in Falenica.

The Description

The first efforts to liquidate the cemetery were made as early as 1927. At the time, the necropolis had an area of 1 morgen (ca. 0.5 ha) and bordered undeveloped plots on two sides, a pasture on one side, and a developed and inhabited plot on the fourth side. After an inspection by the Sanitary and Technical Commission, it was decided that the cemetery posed a threat to the wells in the neighbouring inhabited plot, and in the following years might cause problems in the village of Radość, which was expanding in that direction. On 19 October 1927, the Warsaw District authorities issued a ban on burying the dead in the cemetery. The Jewish community of Falenica appealed this decision, explaining that the neighbouring plot was only temporarily inhabited, and its owner was waiting to sell it for the best possible price. They also pointed out that there were plans to establish a Catholic cemetery nearby. The community’s fight to keep the cemetery open lasted until 1937. It was eventually closed, but due to lack of space for further burials. It officially ceased to operate on 18 January 1938. From that moment on, Jews living in the environs of Radość had to bury their dead in the cemetery in Aleksandrów, of which no trace has survived.

During World War II, the cemetery in Radość was destroyed by the Germans. Many tombstones were used for construction purposes. After the war, the stone matzevot continued to be plundered, and the area was used as a rubbish dump. The layout of the cemetery has become totally illegible. Fragments of the brick wall at Izbicka Street (the southern boundary of the cemetery) have remained in place. The boundaries on the western (at Kwitnącej Akacji Street) and eastern (by the plot at 104 Izbicka Street) side are still visible. There is hardly a trace of the boundary on the northern side, as it is overgrown with a forest.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the cemetery premises were cleaned up on the initiative of Junior High School No. 104, the “Pamięć, Która Trwa” (“Lasting Memory”) Foundation, and the Wawer District Office. In addition, a fence was constructed around the caretaker's wooden house in the corner of the necropolis. During the works, Krystyna Antoniak from the National Council of Art Conservators at the Association of Polish Artists and Designers discovered two matzevot with preserved polychrome decorations. In the spring of 2010, the matzevot were stolen from the cemetery and never recovered. Over time, the caretaker's house collapsed after the wooden planks had rotted away.

In 2018, only five displaced matzevot and a few tombstone fragments were found. The list of tombstones with legible inscriptions is available on the website of the Foundation for the Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries, at https://cemetery.jewish.org.pl/list/c_38.

The cemetery at Kwitnącej Akacji Street is one of the few surviving material traces of the Jewish community of Falenica. Its ownership status remains unregulated. Formally, a part of the area is private land, and another part belongs to the city. The Wawer District Office of the Capital City of Warsaw and the Cultural Heritage Foundation regularly organise maintenance works at the cemetery.

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