KIERNOZIA: Lodzie

Alternate names: Kiernozia [Pol], Kernoza, Russian: Керноза. קירנוז'יה-Hebrew. 52°16' N, 19°52' E, 11 miles NNW of Łowicz, 16 miles W of Sochaczew. Yizkor: Pinkas ha-kehilot; entsiklopediya shel ha-yishuvim le-min hivasdam ve-ad le-aher shoat milhemet ha-olam ha-sheniya: Poland vol. 4: Warsaw and its region (Jerusalem, 1989). This village in Łódź in the district łowickim by voivodship road No 584.  From 1975-1998, the village was in the płockim province on the river Nida at the crossroads of Plock to Łowicza and Kutna to Sochaczew. Map. We Remember Jewish Kiernozia. Many Jews fled eastward before the Germans arrived. On September 16th, Kiernozia was bombed by German planes; the synagogue was destroyed and 20 Jews killed or wounded. The village was occupied two days later and the remaining Jews rounded up and sent to Zychlin, 17 km away. The deportees were kept in the open without food the whole night and then sent to forced labor camps. A few days later when these Jews returned to Kiernozia, they found their houses looted. In March 1940, the Germans set up a fenced ghetto in two streets inhabited by Poles, who were removed from their houses; and the Jews herded in instead. Males ages 15 to 60 were taken daily for slave labor. On July 1, 1940, the Germans put about 240 Jews from surrounding villages into the crowded ghetto. In December, about 650 Jews were in the ghetto. In March 1941, the Germans liquidated the ghetto and sent the Jews of Kiernozia to the Warsaw ghetto and ultimately Treblinka. [June 2009]

US Commission No. POCE000619   
Kiernozia is located in region Plockie at 52°16, 19°52 33 km from Plock and 76 km from Warszawa. Cemetery location: New cemetery is S of the settlement, on the road to Lowicz. Present town population is 1,000-5,000 with no Jews.

• Town: Urzad Gminy, tel. 80.
  
• Regional: Wojewodzki Konserwator Zabytkow, 09-400 Plock, ulica Kole Gialna 15.

Earliest known Jewish community was 1830. 1921 Jewish population was 284. The Jewish cemetery was established the second half of 19th century with last Orthodox burial was about 1939-45. The isolated rural (agricultural) flat land has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all with no wall or gate. The size of the cemetery before WWII and now is 0.24 hectares. There is no gravestones, structures, or mass graves. The cemetery contains a special memorial monument to Holocaust victims. The Municipality owns site used Jewish cemetery only. Properties adjacent are agricultural. Private visitors visit rarely. The cemetery, vandalized during WWII, has no maintenance or care. There are no threats.
Pawel Fijalkowski, K SCC, Sochaczew, Ulica Ziemowita 11, tel. 227-91 completed survey 28 Nov 1991 and visited site in 1990. Documentation: Official Register of Jewish Cemeteries of 1981.