In 1758, the Maków community had a total of 1,528 members, 820 of whom lived in neighbouring villages. The most popular occupation among the craftsmen was tailoring, but there were also many Jewish furriers and bakers in the town. Jews were the dominant force in the local cereal and wool trade. In 1758, the kehilla in Maków became independent.

At the end of the 18th century, when the area formed part of the Prussian Partition, the Maków kehilla gained jurisdiction over the communities of Wyszków and Pułtusk. During the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, a Jewish district was created in the town. Its borders were marked by the Ciechanów Highroad – a street running through Maków’s centre from the west to the east, separating the Market Square and the whole town into two sections: the northern – Jewish, and the southern – Christian (1813). In 1827, the local Jewish community comprised 4,000 people and constituted 90% of the population. Their share started to decrease over the course of subsequent decades, falling to 65% at the turn of the 20th century. This was due to economically motivated migration of Maków Jews to big cities, mainly Warsaw, and overseas.

In the 19th century, many Jews of Maków started to set up small industrial enterprises. The town soon came to boast around a dozen weaving plants as well as tanneries and mills. In 1894, the only ropeyard in the Łomża Governorate was opened in Maków. A printing house operated in the town in the beginning of the 20th century. Merchants from Maków would also supply the Russian troops stationed in the area.

In the 1880s, a yeshiva was established in Maków, soon gaining great esteem in the entire northern Masovia. The town also boasted numerous traditional Jewish societies: Chevra Kadisha, Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot, Chevra Thilim, Ain Yaakov, and Midrash. The turn of the 20th century marked the emergence of first Zionist groups – local cells of Hovevei Zion and the “Mizrarchi” Orthodox Zionist Organisation. The General Jewish Labour Bund opened its division in Maków in 1904. The Zionist-leaning Association of Lovers of Reading (Polish: Towarzystwo Miłośników Czytelnictwa) opened a library in the town; it operated in the years 1906–1908. The local cell of Tseirei Zion was active in 1917. Maków also had a branch of the Zionist Organisation.

Constituting the majority of local inhabitants until the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish population of Maków played an important role in the political life of the town in reborn Poland. In the 1919 election, 15 Jews won seats on the 24-member Municipal Council, in 1927 – 10, and in 1934 – eight (out of 16 seats). A significant number of Masovian Jews supported for the communist movement, which became particularly visible in 1920, during the Polish-Bolshevik War (a revolutionary military committee, the so-called revkom, was established in Maków at the time). The majority of the community, however, remained faithful to tradition – In 1924, the local division of the Orthodox Agudath had ca. 300 members.

One of the charitable organisations active in Maków was Linas Hatsedek. Its local branch was established in 1935 and soon reached 400 members. Another institution present in the town was Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, a fund raising money for the settlement of Jews in Palestine. In the 1930s, a wave of anti-Semitism swept the entire territory of Poland. It did not spare the Jews of Maków. Jewish shops were targeted with a boycott and had front windows broken, while their owners were subjected to persecution.

In 1926, a branch of the “Tarbut” Jewish Cultural and Educational Association was established in Maków. It organised plays, lectures, and theatre performances. During the interwar period, the town boasted three libraries. There was also a number of schools subsidised by the local community. One was run by Agudath activists, another by Mizrachi. The Jewish youth could attend a six-grade humanistic gymnasium and a five-grade humanistic school for girls. Religious Jews continued their studies in the local yeshiva.

Maków was incorporated into the Third Reich after the outbreak of World War II. At the end of 1940, the Germans established a ghetto which encompassed the northern part of the town as well as Franciszkańska Street and Zielona Street together with the adjacent back alleys. In November of the following year, the perimeter of the ghetto was surrounded with a four-metre high wooden fence. The Judenrat (Jewish Council), unit of the Jewish police, and the Aid Committee were established in the district. It is estimated that a total of 12,000 people was at some point kept in the ghetto. Apart from local Jews, its population included refugees from other parts of Poland and displaced people from the districts of Maków and Pułtusk. At the beginning of November 1942, the Germans deported all Jews held in nearby labour camps to the Maków Ghetto and closed the quarter. Ca. 5,500 people were deported to the ghetto in Mława. From there, the Jews would be put on transports (organised regularly until the end of the year) and sent to the Nazi German death camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Over the course of several centuries, the Jewish community of Maków Mazowiecki buried its dead in three different cemeteries. The location of the earliest burial place remains unidentified. The second necropolis, known as the old cemetery, was located between Adamowska Street and Przasnyska Street. First mentioned in 1781, it remained in use until ca. 1870. It was destroyed by the Germans during the World War II. The two-hectare plot once holding the necropolis was converted into a bus station under the Polish People’s Republic. The matzevot plundered from the cemetery grounds were used as building material, for example to pave today’s streets of Kościelna, Grabowa, Moniuszki, and Kościuszki. In 1987, a monument constructed from recovered tombstones was erected on the edge of the square. This was thanks to the efforts of local community workers and descendants of the Jews of Maków living all around the world.

The Description

The new Jewish cemetery in Maków Mazowiecki, located in Ciechanowska Street, was established in 1870. It was destroyed by the Germans during the occupation and continued to dilapidate after the war. No tombstones have survived at the site and the area has been developed with buildings. Matzevot from the necropolis were used by the Germans to pave roads. A total of several hundred tombstones from Maków cemeteries have been found in various spots around the town. Most remain in private hands, while some are exhibited in the “Dom Wesołka” Centre for Cultural Dialogue (Polish: Centrum Dialogu Kulturowego „Dom Wesołka”), which occupies the building of the former house of prayer at the Green Market Square (Polish: Zielony Rynek).

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