Although the development of Międzyrzec was interrupted by fires, floods and epidemics, as well as historical events, including the Chmielnicki Uprising in 1648, at the end of the 17th century the town housed a large, well-organized commune, subordinate to the kahal in Tykocin. The Jewish district, later called Szmulowizna, developed next to the synagogue. At the end of the 18th century, Jewish craft guilds, such as tailoring and furrier guilds, were established.

In 1827, there were 3,012 Jews living in Międzyrzec. The further development of the city was stimulated by the opening of the paved road from Brześć to Warsaw (1823) and the construction of a railway station on the Warsaw-Terespol Railway (1867). In 1886, 10 houses of prayer, 45 cheders and a Jewish hospital operated in Międzyrzec. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Jews owned, among others: water mills, hammer forge, two copper foundries, factories producing matches and nib holders, a bristling factory, as well as a agricultural tools and scales factory. There was also a printing house publishing books and magazines in Polish and Yiddish. Electricity for the city was produced by the Finkelsztajn brothers.

In the interwar period, Jews continued to be the largest ethnic and religious group in Międzyrzec. There were about 90 Jewish shops. Many people made a living by making brushes using traditional methods, and there were also numerous tanneries. Other enterprises include: three cinemas, three mills, groats mills, oil mills, photographic workshops, etc. Doctors, dentists, lawyers and advocates had their practices there, and pharmaceutical warehouses operated. There were as many as 52 cheders, a yeshiva and a religious school for girls run by Bet Yaakov organizaton. In the years 1927–1939, 12 magazines were published in Yiddish.

After the outbreak of World War II, the city was bombed by the German air force and then occupied by the Red Army. After its retreat, German troops entered Międzyrzec. This was quickly followed by mass executions of Jews. In 1942, the Germans established a ghetto and a large labor camp. The final liquidation of the Międzyrzec ghetto took place in 1943. The Germans then demolished the Jewish district along with the synagogue and devastated the cemetery (they shot 179 Jews there). The remaining prisoners were taken to the German Nazi extermination camps in Treblinka and Majdanek.

The Description

The kahal in Międzyrzec Podlaski managed two cemeteries. The exact date of foundation of the older one is unknown, although it may have already operated in the first half of the 16th century. However, the first textual evidence of its existence dates back to 1605. The necropolis was located on today's Brzeska and Zarówie streets. In 1810, due to the expansion of the city and the growing sanitary awareness, Duke Konstanty Czartoryski forced the commune to close the old cemetery. Nevertheless, the necropolis existed still in the interwar period. It was surrounded by a brick wall, and among numerous matzevas there were two ohels built on the graves of local rabbis.

The old Jewish cemetery was destroyed by the Germans during WWII. The matzevas were then used for construction work and for road paving. After the war, local residents mined the clay there, thus destroying the graves themselves. The few surviving Jews from Międzyrzec collected gravestones found in various places in the city. They were subsequently attached to the wall around the new Jewish cemetery at Brzeska 60. The oldest matzeva commemorates Chawa, Yaakov's daughter, who died in 1708. Nowadays, in the area of the old Jewish cemetery in Międzyrzec Podlaski there are single-family houses, an ambulance base and a commercial pavilion.

Author of the note: Magda Lucima

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