Alternate names: Drobin [Pol, Rus], Drobnin [Yid], Russian: Дробин. דרובין-Hebrew. 52°45' N, 19°59' E, 55 miles NW of Warszawa, 18 miles NE of Płock (Plotsk). 1921 Jewish population: 1,096. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), II, p. 146: "Drobin". Gmina Drobin is an urban-rural administrative district in Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland with its seat is the town of Drobin, 18 mi NE of Płock and 56 mi) NW of Warsaw. The gmina 2006 population was 8,531 with the town Drobin at 2,980. Gmina Drobin also contains the villages and settlements of Biskupice, Borowo, Brelki, Brzechowo, Budkowo, Chudzynek, Chudzyno, Cieśle, Cieszewko, Cieszewo, Dobrosielice Drugie, Dobrosielice Pierwsze, Dziewanowo, Karsy, Kłaki, Kowalewo, Kozłówko, Kozłowo, Krajkowo, Kuchary, Łęg Kościelny, Łęg Probostwo, Małachowo, Maliszewko, Mlice-Kostery, Mogielnica, Mogielnica-Kolonia, Nagórki Dobrskie, Nagórki-Olszyny, Niemczewo, Nowa Wieś, Psary, Rogotwórsk, Setropie, Siemienie, Sokolniki, Stanisławowo, Świerczyn, Świerczyn-Bęchy, Świerczynek, Tupadły, Warszewka, Wilkęsy and Wrogocin.[April 2009]
First mentioned in 1487, the first Jews settled during the second half of the 17th century. Fires from 1762-1768 destablized the economy with the Jew engaged trade, labor, or brewing/distilling. A kehilla dates from at least 1757 when Rabbi Abraham Guttmann signed a Cherem (ban) against the Frankists. Around the mid-18th Century, a wooden synagogue was constructed. The Jewish population declined during the 19th century, but increased in the 20th. At the beginning of WWI, German soldiers rioted in the city, attacked Jews, and destroyed their businesses, but shortly Jews traded freely with the Germans. During the interwar period, the economy was depressed. In the 1930s, anti-Semitism increased as evidenced by economic boycotts of Jewish market stalls and stores. In early 1937, rocks throwing broke the synagogue windows. The German Army conquered Drobin on September 5, 1939 and changed its name to Reichenfeld, Ciechanow District. The Germans vandalized Jewish businesses with the help of local Poles. On September 11, 1939, German Police rounded up several hundred men, Poles and Jews from ages 16 to 45, and held them all night in a Catholic Church. The next day, September 12, 1939, they were brought to Sierpc and imprisoned in a produce warehouse. After six days, the men were returned to their homes. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah 1939 (September 14), the Germans forced the rabbi and other Jews to sweep the marketplace.On Yom Kippur 1939, the Gestapo from Plock arrived in Drobin. All Jewish men were ordered to the marketplace. Using pre-prepared lists, for four hours the Germans humiliated the men, forcing all the barbers to shave off their beards and payes. Struck with rifle butts, they were forcde to perform physical exercises, to run, and to sing before a group of local Poles and Germans assembled to watch the "show" with many mocking the men. Forced labor began in September in two hospitals for Polish POWs (established in the local synagogue and beit midrash), in local fields, cleaning the town streets, and eventually road building. Professionals worked in factories confiscated from Jews. Women and children also worked. In October, the Jews were made to wear the yellow star and the Gestapo arrested the rabbi, who escaped to Warsaw. All Jewish stores and businesses were destroyed, their valuables, furniture, household goods, bedding, clothes, and other belongings stolen and a ransome demanded. Left without any means of making a living, most starved along with about one hundred refugees from Mlawa, Rypin, Lipno, Raciaz, Sierpc, and other places. In Spring 1940, the German authorities expelled all Jewish refugees, primarily to Plock and Scegowo although some went into hiding there. In July 1940 a labor camp was established in Balck for the Jews of the area. Jewish men were from their homes in Drobin at night and sent to Balck. In Drobnin was a labor camp for Poles after May 1940 that also held someJewish prisoners. On March 4, 1941, the first deportation began with 600 people brought by truck to a transfer camp in Dzaldowo where the German police robbed them of what was left. On March 14, all were brought by train to Piotrokow-Tribonalski where about 20,000 Jews already were held. Most Drobin Jews were held in the synagogue at 20 Yirozolimska Street.Typhus was rampant. Hunger and disease killed hundreds of Jews in the first months. The rest were sent to Auschwitz at the end of the 1942. Of the 600 Drobniner Jews who were brought to Piotrkow, only six survived. After the March 1941 deportations about 700 Jews remained in Drobin in the ghetto established at the outskirts of the city near the old Jewish cemetery. In December 1941, all were deported to the ghetto in Nove Niasto, near Plonsk and shared the fate of those Jews. After the war, a few survivors returned to Drobin and Polish hostility. In August 1945, Poles from Raciaz, 9 km from Drobin, killed five Jewish Holocaust survivors, two from Drobin. All the surviving Jews of Drobin left. Of the 1300 Jews in Drobin before the war, 50 or 60 survived, most fleeing Poland for Israel or the United States. The synagogue and beit midrash were leveled in Spring 1940.
CEMETERY: Two Jewish cemeteries were destroyed, the tombstones used to repair sidewalks. The old Jewish cemetery is an athletic facility constructed during the German occupation. The new Jewish cemetery is a tree nursery.
US Commission No. POCE000615
The cemetery is located at Ulica Sierpecka. 1991 town population: 1000-5000 with no Jews.
- Local: Urzad Gminy, Ulica Raciazka 15, Tel# 62
- Regional: Wojewodzki Konservator Zabytkow, 09-400 Peock, Ulica Kolegialna, 15.
The earliest known Jewish community was 1735. 1921 Jewish population was 1096. Established in the first half of the 18th century, the last known Orthodox or Conservative Jewish burial was 1945. The isolated urban flat land has no sign, but has Jewish symbols are on the fence and/or gate. The [unlandmarked ?] cemetery is reached by turning directly off a public road and is open to all. A continuous fence with non-working gate surrounds. It was and is approx. 0.7 hectares in size. No stones are visible since it was vandalized during WWII but the cemetery has a memorial monument to Holocaust victims. There are no known mass graves. Municipality owns site used for Jewish cemetery only. Properties adjacent are residential. Occasionally, organized individual tours or private visitors stop. The Jewish Religious Union repaired the wall and gate in 1975. Now authorities occasionally clean the cemetery.
Pawel Fijatkowski, Ulica Ziemolita 11, Tel# 227-91 completed survey on November 27, 1991. Documentation: official register of Jewish cemeteries 1981.