Alternate names: Mińsk Mazowiecki [Pol], Nowo-Mińsk [Pol, 1868-1916], Novominsk, נאוואמינסק [Yid], Min'sk-Mazovyetzki, Миньск-Мазовецки [Rus], Minsk Mazovyets, Mińsk Maz., Novo Minsk, Minsk Khadash, מינסק מאזובייצק[Heb]. Yizkor: Sefer Minsk-Mazowiecki (Jerusalem, 1977). Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), VI, pp. 451-452: "Mińsk". This town in central Poland with 37,138 inhabitants in 2005 in the Masovian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Siedlce Voivodeship (1975-1998) is the capital of Mińsk powiat. [June 2009]
Until 1768 Jewish settlement in Mińsk was forbidden. From the 19th century to the 1930s, Jews lived here with a central synagogue and some smaller prayer houses. Normal 0 Jewish settlement in Minsk Mazowiecki is documented from 1768, but had Jewish population since the 17th century. For the first half of the 18th century, however, Jewish residence was banned. They returned after 1768 and formed a kahal subordinate to Kałuszyn from which they separated in 1822 when kahałs were abolished in the Kingdom of Poland. At that time, the seat of the Jewish community, like the synagogue and mikveh were located on ul. Karczewski (currently ul. Piłsudskiego). The community board included the rabbi, prefect, treasurer and others for MinskMazowiecki and Minsk Cegłów, Siennica, Latowicz, Iwowe, and Jeruzal. After Kałuszynie in Minsk region, this village was the most populace. Jews lived mainly south and south-west of the Old Market Square (pl. Dąbrowszczaków) and the Sendomierz market (pl. Kilińskiego), on both sides of the Srebrnej River, to the streets Mostowa and Upper (ul Kazikowskiego). In 1827, 250 Jews lived in a population of 720. By 1861, 629 Jews lived here. By 1897, 3,445 were part of the 6,016 living in Minsk. Mińsk Jews worked mainly trade and crafts and owned a large amount of real estate in the city. In 1904, 258 out of 381 properties belonged to Jews. The Jewish minority participated actively in the larger city community as well as maintaining Jewish institutions likes charities, Tarbut, banks, schools, and political parties. In 1927, of 24 seats on the municipal council, Jews held eight. At the same time, impaired relations arose between the Jewish community and other residents spurred by economic competition in a bad economy. In August 1920, the Red Army exacerbated the friction. In June 1936 came the murder of or by Judka Lejb Chaskielewicz in the Red Army. Part of the Jewish shops was trashed. As a result, almost 3,000 Jews moved, leaving 5,000 Jews in 1937 out of a total population of 16,500. In 1936, Polish-Jewish relations deteriorated. In August 1940, Germany formed the Jewish ghetto for Jews from Minsk, Pabianice, Kalisz and Lipna. On August 21, 1942, the Nazis liquidated the ghetto and its 7,000 Jews. They shot 1,000 Jews but shipped most in wagons to Treblinka. On August 22, they were slaughtered people in the house at ulica Warszawskiej 35, the Judenrat. A few hundred Jews left alive were set up in two slave labor groups. One group of about 150 people was placed in the former Rudzkiego factory on Piłsudskiego 55 that closed in June 1943, the fifth killing of 104 people. The second group of about five hundred people was located in School No. 1 at Siennickiej 39. The number of people killed in the Jewish cemetery on December 24, 1942 is unknown, but about 250 were shot in January 1943. more town history.[June 2009]
NEW CEMETERY:
- Established after 1863 and probably in 1870 in the area of today's streets Cichej and Dąbrówki (roughly 800 meters from the market or rynek), the 1.05 hectares rectangular area measuring 150 by 60 m. has a wire fence and shrubs that surround the area with the entrance is from the NW. The oldest preserved matzevot dates from 1878. All in all, several hundred matzevot survived in rows running NE - SW. Most have traditional vertical shapes with semi-circular tops. Inscriptions are primarily in Hebrew with only in Polish or Yiddish. Men and women were in separate sections, but not in the center. In the SW are most likely the unmarked MASS GRAVES of Jews shot in 1942 and 1943 by the Germans. On August 21, 1967 - the twenty-fifth anniversary of the ghetto liquidation - the granite Holocaust monument was unveiled. The plaque in Polish and Yiddish says: "This monument is dedicated to the memory of the Jewish population of Minsk Mazowiecki and the surrounding area, 5,500 men, women and children murdered in the years 1939-1945 by the Nazi "ludobójców". Blessed memory of martyrs." A unique feature in this cemetery are the men's fieldstone matzevot. The oldest dates from 1870. In addition to traditional Jewish symbols (candelabra, broken candle, Levite pitcher, Cohamin hands) are hearts. In 2007, the Jewish Community in Warsaw, the Jewish cemetery in Minsk Mazowiecki was inventoried. The Jewish cemetery in Warsaw holds the ohel of Simeon Altera Israel (1874-1932), a famous tzaddik serving in Minsk Mazowiecki and in Warsaw. [June 2009]
- MINSK MAZOWIECK (II): US Commission No. POCE000575
See Minsk Mazowiecki I for town information. This cemetery was established about 1890 with last burial in 1943. The isolated urban flat land has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is entirely closed with no wall, fence, or gate. The size is 1.5 hectare. 100-500 stones, in original position with fewer than 25% toppled or broken, date from 19th-20th century. The granite and sandstone rough stones / boulders, flat-shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, or flat stones with carved relief decoration have Yiddish and Polish inscriptions. The cemetery has special memorial monuments to Holocaust victims but no known mass graves. Municipality owns property used for Jewish cemetery only. Adjacent properties are residential and a hospital. Private visitors stop rarely. The cemetery was vandalized during WWII. Jewish groups within country and abroad and the Urzad Miejski re-erected stones, planted trees, cleared vegetation, and built wire-net fencing, a new gate, and a monument in 1965. Every year grass is cut, bushes removed, fence repaired. In 1992: a project of new arrangement and fencing done cost the municipality $1400. No structures. Weather erosion is a moderate threat. Pollution, vegetation, and vandalism are slight threats.
Cezary Ostas, Siedlce, ul. Pomorska 1/68, tel. 290-95 completed this survey on 30 Oct 1992 using documentation by T. Gurowska and M. Wydzga in 1984, available in conservator's office in Siedlce. He visited the site and interviewed Edward Kopowka, Siedlce and Lidia Gierz, ul. Szczecinska 11, Minsk Mazowiecki on 30 Oct 1992.
http://www.zchor.org/minsk.htm [October 2000]
OLD CEMETERY:
- In the western part of the city near today's ul. Kazikowskiej north of the road to Kołbieli, the site currently is a school building. [June 2009]
MINSK MAZOWIECKI (I): US Commission No. POCE000574
Alternate Yiddish name: Novominsk. Minsk Mazowiecki is located in Siedlechie Province at 21º33/52º11, 46 miles from Warsaw. The cemetery is located between 18 Kazikowskiego Street and 16 Trzeciego Maja Street [3 Maja Street]. Present population is 25,000-100,000 with fewer than 10 Jews.
- Town: Urzad Miejski, ul. Kosciuszki 3.
- Regional: Wojwodzki Konserwator Zabytkow Siedlce, ul. Zbrojna 3, tel. No. 394-58.
- Interested: Towarzystwo Przyjacoil Minska Mazowieckiego [Society of Friends of Minsk Mazowiecki], ul. Warszawska 117.
1921 Jewish population was 4130. The isolated urban flat land has no sign or marker. There is no trace of the cemetery. The site is a complex of vocational schools owned by the municipality.
Cezary Ostas, Siedlce, ul. Pomorska 1/68, tel. 290-95 completed this survey on 30 Oct 1992. He visited the site and interviewed Lidia Giercz, ul. Szczecinska 11, Minsk Mazowiecki on 30 Oct 1992.
http://www.zchor.org/minsk.htm [October 2000]
burial list [Jan 2015]