The Description

At the end of the 19th century, the Jewish community in Zieluń had over 200 members. According to the census of 1921, the town had 366 Jewish residents, which constituted almost 44% of its total population. The Jewish community later began to shrink in size in view of the lack of jobs and prospects in Zieluń, as well as due to the rise of anti-Semitism. Just before the outbreak of World War II, only 130 Jews lived in Zieluń. At the end of 1941, they were resettled by the Germans to the ghetto in Mława, and from there to the Nazi German Treblinka II extermination camp.

After the war, the unused Jewish cemetery was falling into decay. The local inhabitants plundered the matzevot and used them for construction purposes. As a result, no material traces of the necropolis have survived to the present day. The boundaries of the former cemetery are now illegible, and its area is overgrown with a forest. The cemetery plot is now managed by the State Forests Directorate (Lidzbark Forestry District).