Alternate names: Tarczyn [Pol], Tartchin, טארצ'ין [Yid], Tarchin, Тарчин [Rus]. 51°58' N, 20°50' E, 21 miles SSW of Warszawa, 7 miles N of Grójec. Jewish population: 1,427 (in 1921). This town in the Masovian Voivodeship, about 30 km Sof Warsaw had 3,869 inhabitants in 2004. Normal 0 Jewish settlement in Tarczyn began in the first half of the 19th century. In 1858, 59 houses (6 brick) housed 639 Jews, about 2/3 of the total. Chassidism was prevalent. The tzaddik Joseph ben Jacob, son of the famous Icchak Hurwicz (Horowitz) lived here. In 1921, 2,526 residents included 1,427 Jews deported at the beginning of 1941 to the Warsaw ghetto and then to Treblinka. [July 2009]
CEMETERY: Located west of the village center at ul. Gliwicka 66, to reach the 0.55-hectare cemetery proceed to ul Mszczonowską and the Catholic cemetery. Turn right into the field on the road leading between the courts and agricultural buildings and service stations. After several hundred meters, at the end of the road on the right side is a large clump of scrubland hiding the Jewish cemetery. The 1822 cemetery was destroyed during WWII. Many of the graves were stolen, many monuments broken. The land is now used as an illegal garbage dump. The first burial took place on March 6, 1822 (Markus Linkl). In 1894 a beit tahara was built that is now a private residence. After 1945 a vacant part of the cemetery became the Evangelical cemetery. The littered rectangular cemetery of 30 to 50 meters has dense and thorny bushes impeding access. Among the scrub and litter are isolated fragments of tombstones. In the NE corner of the cemetery land a concave matzevot is visible with a fragment of inscription in Hebrew and flora motif, On the SE edge of the cemetery are some gravestones. In another spot is a matzevot cracked in half with a few Hebrew letters and ornamental plants. Locals stole sandstone matzevot to make whetstones. One person found them on property of his parents or in-law, returned the "whetstone: to the cemetery. Perhaps other will return. At the cemetery are also small pieces of concrete and sandstone remains of graves are found amid the 200 gravestones inscribed in Hebrew and German. Ivy chocks the site surrounded by a brick wall. Photos. photos. [July 2009]