Alternate names: Radziejów [Pol], Rädichau [Ger]. 52°37' N, 18°32' E, 21 miles W of Włocławek, 21 miles SW of Nieszawa. Jewish population: 599 (in 1921). Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), IX, pp. 464-465: "Radziejów". This town in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship about 45 km S of Toruń is the capital of Radziejów powiat with a population of 5,804 in 2004. The town had a Jewish community since the 18th century with 15 Jews (5%) in 1793. Restrictions on Jewish settlement from 1822 to 1862, changed afterward until in 1921 599 Jews were 19.0% of the town population. About 800 Jews here were confined in a ghetto by the Nazs from 1941 until 1942. The ghetto was liquidated in April 1942 when the Jews were transported to Chelmno extermination camp and killed in gas vans by carbon monoxide exhaust.
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Some Jewish survivors returned to Radziejów in Summer 1945 to find the Jewish-owned houses and businesses taken over by Poles. Two Jews were murdered on the night of September 29, 1945 in the nearby village Osięciny. The other Radziejów Jews fled, but returned a few weeks later. In 1946 they organized a local branch of the Central Committee of Polish Jews(Centralny Komitet Żydów Polskich that functioned until 1948 when most of its members left. After 1949, only a few individual Jews remained. Synagogue history. [June 2009]
CEMETERY: Normal 0 Establishment of the Jewish cemetery in Radziejow probably was in the early 19th century. Located in the southern part of the city at the end of the current street Ogrodowej and Sosnowej. During WWII, the Germans ordered destruction of the cemetery. On Sunday, April 22, 1942, a few days after the deportation of remaining Jews from Radziejów, the Gestapo Beck arrived at the estate called Gory and told the workers to destroy the Jewish gravestones in the cemetery. Even today, fragments of gravestones are in the steps of houses in the village. Thieves and vandals and the local authorities destroyed whatever remained of the gravestones after the war. The district council in 1956 marked the part of the slope on which the cemetery was located for excavating gravel. This continued for several years leaving a huge excavation site. Finding this site is very difficult. A few dozen meters from the road, a path leads through pine forest and the vegetation choked edge of a ten-meter high slope. Human bones may be visible. Photos. [June 2009]