After 1862, there was a gradual influx of the Jewish population to Urzędów due to the lifting of the above ban. In the second half of the 19th century, there was a pottery factory and approximately 20 shops owned by Jews. It was probably then that an independent Jewish community was formed. In 1900, 303 people of the Jewish faith lived in the town. They were mainly involved in trade, which was a serious source of conflict with the Christian community. The situation deteriorated as the economic crisis deepened and anti-Semitism grew.

In the interwar period, the commune managed the synagogue, beth midrash, mikvah, ritual slaughterhouse and cemetery. There was also a private cheder in the town and political life developed, with Zionist groups having a great influence over the latter.

After the outbreak of World War II, Urzędów was occupied by the Germans. In 1940, they forced Jews to wear an armband with the Star of David on their left arm. They also created a ghetto, which also housed prisoners from Wąwolnica and Vienna. The liquidation of the ghetto took place in 1942, when the occupier transported everyone able to work to the camp in Kraśnik-Budzyń and the rest to the ghetto in Kraśnik. From there, the Jews from Urzędów were sent to the German Nazi extermination camp in Bełżec.

The Description

The Jewish cemetery in Urzędów is located about 1 km south of the market square, on the so-called Urzędów fields, between Urzędów and Kraśnik. It occupies a grove in the middle of the fields, located next to a deep ravine overgrown with trees and bushes, close to the property at Partyzantów 64. It can be reached via dirt roads - from Partyzantów street or from the side of Wodna street.

According to the inscription on the monument, the cemetery was founded in 1908. The plot was bought from three farmers: Czesław Grudziński, Józef Krasiński and Adolf Wojtuszkiewicz. Soon the cemetery was surrounded by a fence.

During WWII, the Germans devastated the cemetery. The crime of genocide also took place there. All matzevas were removed or destroyed, and the area was distorted due to sand excavation during the times of the Polish People's Republic. Only in 1993, on the initiative of the residents, a monument in the shape of a matzevah was erected, dedicated to the memory of the murdered. The inscription reads: 'To the Jews of Urzędów murdered by the Nazis in the years 1939–1944. The society of Urzędów 1993. The site was a Jewish cemetery between 1908 and 1944.'

Author of the note: Magda Lucima

Właściciel praw autorskich do opisu: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN.