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Coat of arms of Gmina StrzegowoAlternate names: Strzegowo [Pol], Strzegowo-Osada [Pol, until 1997], St'shegova, סטשעגאווע [Yid], Stshegovo, Стшегово [Rus], St'chegova, Schegove, Schegovo, Stryzgov, Stshegove. 52°54' N, 20°17' E, 34 miles NE of Płock, 16 miles S of Mława, 14 miles W of Ciechanów. Jewish population: 591 (in 1921). Yizkors: Strzegowo yisker-bukh (New York, 1951) and The life and death of a Polish shtetl (Lincoln, Nebraska, 2000). Strzegowo is a village on the Wkra river in Mława County, Masovian Voivodeship in east-central Poland and is the seat of the administrative district called Gmina Strzegowo. Formerly known as Strzegowo-Osada ("Strzegowo settlement"), 25 km (16 mi) S of Mława and 91 km (57 mi) NW of Warsaw. The village has approximarly 2,000 inhabitants. Before World War II, 30% of the population of the village was Jewish. [July 2009]

Source: Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Jewish Heritage Travel A Guide to East-Central Europe. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992. p. 63 Synagogue, 64

CEMETERY:

Strzegowo-Osada is located in Ciechanow at 52°54 20°17, 27km from Mlawa. The cemetery is located S of village in forest on left side of road to Komunin. Present town population is 1,000-5,000 with no Jews.

The earliest known Jewish community existed here after 1775. 1921 Jewish population was 591. The cemetery was established in the 19th century with the last known Orthodox, Sephardic Orthodox, Conservative, or Progressive/Reform Jewish burial 1941. The isolated wooded flat land has signs in Polish and Hebrew mentioning Jews, the Holocaust, and the Jewish Community. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. A continuous fence with non-locking gate surround. The approximate size of the cemetery, both before World War II and now, is 0.25 hectares. Vegetation overgrowth is a seasonal problem that prevents access to graves. The municipality owns property used only as a Jewish cemetery. Properties adjacent are agricultural. Occasionally, private visitors and local residents stop. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II, but not in the last ten years. The cemetery has had its vegetation cleared, its wall fixed, and its gate fixed but no care now. Vegetation is the greatest threat facing the cemetery. Fewer than 20 visible gravestones with less than 25% broken or toppled date from 1911 (Jakub Halewi). The sandstone flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, flat stones with carved relief decoration, or double tombstones have Hebrew, Yiddish, and Polish inscriptions. The cemetery contains special memorial monuments to Holocaust victims. There are no known mass graves or structures.

Wojcieck Henrykowski of, ul. Spoldzielcza 20, 06-200 Makow Mazowiecki completed survey 10/91. Documentation: the collection of Panstwowa Sluzba Ochrony Zabytkow w Ciechanow nr 32/85 and Ziemia Ploniska Materialy do Dziejow Ziemi Plockiej, Plock, 1989. He visited in September 1991 and interviewed the employees of the communal office in Stregowo.

 

Parent Category: EASTERN EUROPE