Until the mid-18th century, the local Jewish community was subordinate to the kehilla in Ciechanów. The continuous conflicts between the Christian and the Jewish inhabitants of the town eventually led to the intervention of the Good Order Committee, which in 1776 ordered Jews to leave Mława.

Jewish people started to return to the town under the Prussian Partition – in 1808, there were already over 130 of them living in Mława (15% of the total population). They hailed mostly from neighbouring towns. The first wooden synagogue in Mława was probably erected at the end of the 18th century. In the period of the Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland), the authorities decided to establish a “Jewish district” in the town. It encompassed the area of Warszawska, Bóżnicza, Ostatnia, Kozia, and Szewska streets (1824). The decision met with fierce opposition from the community and, as a result, the campaign of resettling Jews to the newly founded quarter was discontinued in 1833. Most Jewish residents of Mława made a living from trade and crafts, mainly tailoring, shoemaking, and baking. Due to the proximity of the border with Prussia, many of them were also involved in contraband trade. The merchants of Mława supplied the local Russian garrison. The town’s economy experienced a significant boost after the Vistula Railway, which connected Mława with Warsaw, opened in 1877. Many Jewish entrepreneurs ran hotels or restaurants in the vicinity of the railway station.

In the 19th century, the internal divisions within the Jewish population of Mława were becoming more and more pronounced, with the local Orthodox Jews fervently opposing the Hasidim. In the 1880s, the town had about 3,500 Jewish residents, who constituted 51% of its entire population. However, the end of the 19th century saw a downward trend, with many local Jews leaving their hometown and moving to Warsaw or migrating to Germany or the United States. In 1904, the first Zionist club was founded in Mława.

In reborn Poland, the share of Jews in the population of Mława was steadily decreasing – in 1931, they constituted only 32% of the town’s 20,000 residents. In the interwar period, the majority of industrial plants (including steam mills, factories producing ink, thread, and cigarette boxes, as well as cement plants) and most shops and artisan workshops in Mława belonged to Jews.

A unit of Betar – a Zionist youth organisation – was established in Mława in the 1920s. The organisation provided military training in preparation for the struggle for a Jewish state in Palestine. Many Jews supported the local division of the Orthodox Agudath. The Jewish community took an active part in public life of Mława: in 1916, there were 11 Jews sitting on the 24-member Municipal Council, in 1928 – eight, and in 1934 – three.

Jewish children in Mława attended numerous cheders, while adolescents could enrol in the co-educational Jewish secondary school founded by the Zionists in 1917. There were four Jewish libraries in the town. The activities of the Zionist “Ha-Zomir” society, established in the early 20th century, greatly enlivened the cultural life of the Jews of Mława.

In the autumn of 1939, many local Jews fled towards Warsaw or east, to the territories occupied by the Soviet Union. Mława was invaded by the Germans, who set fire to the synagogue (its ruins were demolished in 1942–1943). In October, after Mława was incorporated into the Third Reich, the Germans started to deport the local Jewish population to the General Government. They established a ghetto in the town in December 1940, having previously displaced a group of 3,000 Jews to the transit camp in Działdowo. The 2,500 Jews remaining in Mława were resettled to the ghetto, which comprised the streets Warszawska, Długa, Płocka, and Szewska. It remained an open district until May 1941. The ghetto population amounted to over 6,000 Jews, both residents of Mława and people displaced from other towns in northern Masovia. In November 1942, the quarter was liquidated, with its prisoners transported to Nazi German death camps: the old and the sick were deported to Treblinka, the rest to Auschwitz. A handful of Holocaust Survivors returned to Mława after the war. A branch of the Jewish Committee was formed in the town. It had 20 registered members, most of whom soon departed.

The Description

The Jewish community in Mława had two cemeteries. The first one, the so-called old cemetery, was located in Zabrody, at today’s Krucza Street. It was established in the 18th century – the earliest pieces of information about its existence date back to 1775. The last burial at the site took place at the beginning of the 20th century. The necropolis had to be closed after a military area had been established in the neighbourhood. Due to the devastation under World War II and neglect after the end of the armed conflict, not a single tombstone has survived on the cemetery grounds, which cover an area of 1.5 hectare (the last standing matzeva disappeared in the early 21st century).

The new Jewish cemetery in Mława was established after the earlier burial site had been closed (probably in 1884). It is located in Warszawska Street, a few hundred metres away from the old cemetery. Before World War II, the cemetery was surrounded with a red brick wall. The last recorded burial at the site took place in 1942. During the German occupation, the cemetery was vandalised, with most of the matzevot torn out. After the war, the exhumed remains of several dozen victims of German executions were buried in the cemetery. However, their tombstones were soon destroyed by unknown perpetrators. As a result of post-war neglect and further devastation, only fragments of two matzevot have survived on the 1.608 hectare plot. In the late the 1960s, tombstones used in the construction of a fence were found at the military training ground in Nosarzewo Borowe. In 1976, the municipal authorities of Mława cleaned up the cemetery grounds and planted trees at the site.

The early 1990s saw the foundation of the Monument to the Memory of the Jews of Mława Murdered in 1939–1945, erected on the initiative of the Society of Friends of Mława Land (Polish: Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Ziemi Mławskiej), the Mława Landsmanshaft in Israel and the Diaspora, and the local government of Mława. The monument, shaped like a menorah with candles, was designed by Andrzej Borcz. It was unveiled in June 1994, which coincided with the entry of the cemetery into the register of monuments. In 1997, the cemetery was cleaned up for the second time. Thanks to financial support from the Nissenbaum Family Foundation, the site was surrounded with a metal fence with a gate on the side of Warszawska Street. In July of the following year, the monument was unveiled again, after having been modified to fit the original vision of the designer.

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