Alternate names: Otwock [Pol], Otvosk, אטוואצק [Yid], Otvotzk, Отвоцк [Rus], Otvotsk, Oshvotsk, Ushvotsk. 52°08' N, 21°19' E, 16 miles ESE of Warsaw. Yizkors: Khurbn Otvotsk, Falenits, Kartshev ([Bamberg], 1948) and Yisker-bukh; Otvotsk-Kartshev (Tel Aviv, 1968). This town in central Poland, 15 mi (24 km) SE of Warsaw with 42,765 inhabitants in 2004 on the right bank of Vistula River below the mouth of Swider River. Otwock is situated in the Masovian Voivodship since 1999; previously, it was in Warszawa Voivodship (1975-1998) and is the capital of Otwock powiat in a heavily forested. Otwock is home to a unique architectural style called Swidermajer. Normal 0 Jewish settlement in Otwock began in the 1880s. One of the first Jews was tzaddik Kalisz Symcha Bunem, grandson of the famous Israel Icchak Kalisz from Warki, who built the beit midrash. With its beneficial climate and proximity to rivers and forests, the town soon became a popular spa for Polish Jews, many fighting TB, with guesthouses, sanatoria, kosher kitchen, prayer houses and synagogues. In the 1920s, Jews were about 76% of the patients. 10,689 Jews (55%) lived here before WWII. During WWII, a murderous Action T4 program was carried out by the Nazis in a local psychiatric hospital. The five synagogues burned in 1939. The Otwock ghetto was liquidated on September 19, 1942, when 75% of its 8,000 residents was assembled at a layover yard in and shipped to Treblinka and 2000 Jews were shot at Reymonta Street. Irena Sendler, who saved thousands of Jewish children during the Holocaust, was born here in 1910. 400 Jews lived here following WWII. [June 2009]
see cemeteries in Anielin and Karczew also
Wikipedia [Jan 2015]
"The War Against The Jews." The Holocaust Chronicle, 2009. Chicago, Il. Accessed June 21, 2011.
Społeczny Komitet Pamięci Żydów Otwockich i Karczewskich - działania w latach 2002-2007 Sekcja terenowa Polskiej Rady Chrześcijan i Żydów (Otwock Branch of Poland's Advisory of Christians and Jews ); Zbigniew Nosowski, President. (Polish)
A Time to Heal: The Story of the Children's Home in Otwock an online exhibition by Yad Vashem
Jewish Community in Otwock on Virtual Shtetl
CEMETERY:
Cemetery photos. photos. map and history. map and photos. cemetery video. [June 2009]
In the August 5 issue of the Atlanta Jewish Times is an interesting article about the Jewish cemetery in Otwock, Poland. On a recent trip to Poland, 12 of the 32 people on a teen mission from the North Lanier Baptist Church in Cumming, Georgia cleared brush, dug up pieces of headstones and tried to put Jewish grave markers back together. See www.northlanier.org [August 2005]
photo. [August 2005]
Cemetery photos [January 2006]
burial list [Jan 2015]