Alternate names: Pajęczno [Pol], Payentchno [Yid], Pfeilstädt [Ger, 1943-45], Payaczno, Pajenczno. 51°09' N, 19°00' E, 34 miles WSW of Piotrków Trybunalski, 25 miles NNW of Częstochowa, 20 miles WNW of Radomsko (Nowo-Radomsk). 1900 Jewish population: 594. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), VII, p. 818: "Pajęczno". A town in Łódź Voivodeship, 40 km N of Częstochowa is the capital of Pajęczno powiat with a 2004 population of 6,731. Jews lived in Pajeczno in the 18th century. In the 1820's the Jewish community included families from the surrounding villages. Few were shopkeepers or peddlers. Most could not even pay the community taxes. In 1936, rampant antiSemitism and the economic boycott exascerbated difficulties for the Jews. 25% of Pajeczno Jews immigrated and half lived on charity. 2,000+ Jewish refugees were in the ghetto with a barbed wire fence erected at the end of 1941 in the most squalid part of town. Jewish police watched its entrances. as inhabitants existed on smuggling. Beginning in summer 1941 forced labor began at camps in the Poznan area. In summer 1942, the head of the Judenrat and eleven others were murdered. The ghetto was liquidated at the end of August 1942: 1,800 Jews densely packed into a church without food until the 140 in hiding joined them. The old and weak were executed. 50 Jews were ordered to collect the JEwish property while the remaining 1,400 were transported to Chelmo extermination camp. Six or seven Jews survived the camps, part of them hiding until the end of the war. [June 2009]
US Commission No. POCE000172
Pajeczno is located in Czestochowa region at 51º09 19º00, 49 km from Czestochowa; 30 km from Radomsko. The cemetery is located N of the town. Present town population is 5,000-25,000 with no Jews.
- Town: Pajeczno is Urzad Miasta; Gminy ul. Cmentarna, tel. 7523.
- Regional: region Konserwator Zabytkow, 43-217 Czestochowa, ul. Domegelskichz, tel. 49-745.
1921 Jewish population was 618. The Orthodox Jewish cemetery probably was established in the first half of the 19th century. Between fields and woods, isolated the flat land has no sign or marker, no wall, gate, or fence. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. No gravestones are visible, no known mass graves. The municipality currently owns it. Properties adjacent are agricultural and forest. Local residents visit rarely. The cemetery was vandalized during W.W.II. No maintenance. Vegetation is a constant problem, disturbing graves.
Jan Pawet Woronrak, Sandomierska Street, 21m.l, 02-567 Warszawa, tel. 49-54-62 completed survey.