Obj. ID: 50460
Jewish Funerary Art  Site of the Old Jewish cemetery in Maków Mazowiecki, Poland

According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the old Jewish cemetery in Maków Mazowiecki suffered significant damage during and after World War II. The Germans used some tombstones to harden the roads. In the period of the Polish People’s Republic, the area was taken over by the State Treasury and divided into several geodesic plots. The western part of the cemetery was designated for single-family houses, while a bus station and streets were built in the remaining area. All the above-ground traces of the cemetery have vanished. In 1984, the activists of the Association of Maków Mazowiecki Lovers excavated some tombstones used by the Germans to pave the streets. In 1987, at the edge of the maneuvering area of the bus station, a monument in the form of a step pyramid, designed by Wojciech Henrykowski, was erected using 250 recovered tombstones and fragments of tombstones. The “Mobilis” company has been the tenant of the bus station since 2010.

The list of personal data from 26 tombstones used in the lapidarium is available at: https://cemetery.jewish.org.pl/list/c_89. Tombstones found in recent years have been secured at the property of Wojciech Henrykowski and the Center for Cultural Dialogue “Dom Wesołka”. Tombstones from Maków Mazowiecki were also used to build lapidaries in cemeteries in nearby towns. The cemetery is listed in the Municipal and Provincial Register of Monuments and the Register of Immovable Monuments of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship.