Alternate names: Skierniewice [Pol], Skiernivitz, סקערניעוויץ [Yid], Skernevitze, Скерневице [Rus], Skernyevits. 51°58' N, 20°09' E, 41 miles WSW of Warsaw, 33 miles ENE of Łódź. 1900 Jewish population: 3,069. Yizkors: Z dziejów Żydów skierniewickich (Skierniewice, 1993) and Sefer Skierniewice: le-zeykher der fartilikter kehileh kdosheh (Tel Aviv, 1955). ShtetLink. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), X, pp. 672-675: "Skierniewice". This town in central Poland with 49,132 inhabitants in 2007 in the Łódź Voivodship since 1999, previously capital of Skierniewice Voivodship (1975-1998) and the capital of Skierniewice powiat almost exactly half-way between Łódź and Warsaw.
NEW CEMETERY: Founded in 1919 at ul. Granicznej, this cemetery was destroyed during WWII. Members of the Friends of Skierniewice in recent years returned many matzevot found in the city to the cemetery. About 80 gravestones remain in their entirety or in fragments. Possibly 1,576 originally were in the cemetery. In 1998, a stylized plaque at the entrance to the cemetery was set with the inscription: "In 1939, Jews accounted for one-third of the population Skierniewice, distinguished by speech, clothing and customs and dominated in trade, crafts and services. They were doctors, lawyers, and councilors. Upon their entry into Skierniewice in 1939, Germans closed Jews from the city and county in inhumane conditions in the ghetto bounded by ulice Rawska, Stanisławska, Strykowska, Piotrkowska, Barania, Poprzeczna, Krótka and Floriana. On January 23, 1943, the Nazis closed the ghetto sending 5000 Jews to Rawy Mazowiecka,and then to Warsaw on foot, exhausted and hungry. The portion to Rawy killed more than 300 buried in Rowach. The Friends Skierniewice at the expense of Erving Gross set a memorial inscribed. "On the edge of the cemetery there is a mass grave of 46 Holocaust victims. Exhumation, burial, and the construction of the monument was by Chaim ben Nechemiasza Frenkl in 1947." Many old buildings include houses once belonging to Jews on ul Batorego and the ruined synagogue building. Photos. [July 2009]
OLD CEMETERY: Founded in 1828 over Skierniewicach Strobowska Łupią, local authorities closed this 0.5-ha cemetery in 1919 for sanitary reasons. The Previously, these Jews used the cemeteries in Skierniewice Lowicz, Sochaczew or remote Wyszogrodzie. During WWII, the Nazis destroyed the cemetery by dumping gravestones in the river to shore up the banks of the river Macewy or as a breakwater for a pool for local garrison soldiers until a violent spring storm in 1943 destroyed the dam. The gravestones sunk in the mud. The destruction continued after the war. Today, the cemetery contains only a few matzevot and am ohel protecting the tomb of tzaddick Rabbi Simeon ben Mendel Kalisz, born in 1857 in Warka. He died on September 28, 1926. The cemetery is fenced with barbed wire, the entry from the side of the road leading to the lagoon or by the adjacent property yard. The Nissenbaum Family Foundation restored 10 granite and sandstone matzevot with inscriptions in Hebrew and Polish from 1857-1926 and the ohel of Szymon Kalish in 1989 with a new hedge. Photos. [July 2009]
SKIERNIEWICE I: US Commission No. POCE000217
The town is in Skierniewickie region at 51º58 20º8, 50 km from Lodz and 67 km from Warsaw. The cemetery is located at ul. Strobowska. Present town population is 25,000-100,000 with no Jews.
- Town: Urzad Miasta (City Hall Office), Rynek 1, tel. 2109.
- Regional: Wojewodski Konserwator Zabytkow, 96-100 Skierniewice, ul. Powologicina 10.
The earliest Jewish community was around 1828. 1921 Jewish population was 4,333; 1931 was 4,445. The cemetery was established about 1828. Buried here were Szymon Kalisz re, Skierniewic, syn Menachema Mendla. The last known Orthodox or Conservative Jewish burial was about 1935. Landmarked: Register of Jewish Cemeteries of the Office for Religious Affairs since 1981. The isolated suburban site ear water has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. A continuous fence without gate surrounds the cemetery. The size of the cemetery is about 1.75 ha. 1-20 granite or sandstone gravestones, probably not in original locations with less than 25% toppled or broken, date from the 19th-20th centuries. The flat shaped or finely smoothed inscribed stones have Hebrew or Polish inscriptions. There are no known mass graves. The municipality owns property used for agriculture. Properties adjacent are recreational. Occasionally, private visitors stop. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II, no maintenance. There are an apartment building and a storage house within the limits of the cemetery. No threats.
Pawel Fijalkowski, 96-500, Sochacrew, ul. Ziesnowita 11, tel. 227-91 completed survey on July 6, 1991 and visited on July 5, 1991.
SKIERNIEWICE (II): US Commission No. POCE000217
See Skierniewice (I) for general information. This Orthodox and Conservative cemetery is located on ul. Graniezna. It was established about 1910 with the latest burial in 1947 due to the exhumation of the murdered Jews in 1939-1945. Landmarked: Register of Jewish Cemeteries of the Office for Religious Affairs since 1981. The isolated suburban agricultural flat land has no sign or marker. Reached by crossing private property, access is open to all with no wall, fence or gate. The present size of the cemetery is 0.83 ha. 1-20 gravestones, most in original locations with less than 25% toppled or broken, date from the 20th century. The cemetery is divided into men and women sections. The sandstone or concrete finely smoothed and inscribed stones and flat stones with carved relief decoration have Hebrew, Yiddish and Polish inscriptions. There is a special memorial monument to Holocaust victims. The cemetery contains marked mass graves. Municipality owns property not being used. Properties adjacent are agricultural or residential. Occasionally, organized individual tours. The cemetery was vandalized during WW II with no maintenance. Vandalism is a slight threat.
Pawel Fijatkowski, 96-500, Sochacrew, Ziemowita 11, tel. 227-91 completed survey on July 6, 1991 after a July 5, 1991 visit.
They Lived Among Us: Polish Judaica, a travel brochure: Arline Sachs, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. extracted names of townstaht supposedly having Jewish cemeteries. These generally have names only; sometimes a description of famous people who lived there, but no page number.)
BOOK: Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Jewish Heritage Travel A Guide to East-Central Europe. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992. p. 78