First Jews arrived to in the town in the first half of the 15th century. The earliest mention of the local Jewish community dates back to 1507. In the mid-16th century, blood libel accusations were levelled against the Jews of Rawa, which resulted in their expulsion from the town (1547). It is presumed that the settlement ban was not rigidly enforced, at least in the first decades after its adoption.

Jews returned to Rawa during the reign of King Stanisław August Poniatowski. In 1775, Alderman of Rawa Franciszek Lanckoroński established a small settlement for Jews in the village of Zamkowa Wola, located on the opposite bank of the Rylka River. The main artery of the estate was called Jerozolimska Street. It is estimated that in the final years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was inhabited by some 150–200 people. The local Jewish community mainly made a living from tanning, glassblowing, weaving, goldsmithing, and tailoring. The growing influence of Jews on the local economy sparked conflicts with the mostly impoverished Christian population. In 1799, after the area had been annexed by Prussia, the settlement was incorporated into Rawa and became known as the Jewish Town (Polish: Miasto Żydowskie).

In the period of the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland), the share of Jews in the local population was systematically growing – at the end of the 19th century, they already constituted a half of all local residents (1897). The strong economic position of the Jewish community suffered a heavy blow with the great fire of 1861, which consumed most of the properties belonging to its members. The inhabitants of Rawa – Jews and Christians alike – were also strongly affected by World War I. The town remained on the front line for several months and its buildings were completely destroyed in warfare.

The first census in reborn Poland, carried out in 1921, showed that there were 3,000 Jews living in Rawa. The deep economic crisis of the 1930s led to rising tensions between the Jewish and Christian communities in the town. Jews constituted 40% of the population. The most significant political force in the community were Zionist groups, including Mizrachi and Poale Zion. There were also several economic organisations in the town, including the Union of Merchants and the Association of Craftsmen.

Rawa Mazowiecka was captured by the German army in early September 1939. The very first days of the occupation were marked by acts of terror and war crimes committed by the Wehrmacht. On 10 September, a group of 40 inhabitants of the town (including 23 Jews) was shot by German soldiers. The occupier introduced various repressions against the Jewish population, including beard-cutting, roundups, arrests on false or forged charges, and executions. A ghetto was established in Rawa in March 1941. Its population comprised over 4,000 Jews. Initially consisting of two separate parts, the district was not surrounded with a wall. One section was located in the area commonly called Żydzi [“The Jews”], while the other encompassed Łowicka Street. The ghetto covered the entire eastern part of the town, from the bridge on the Rylka near the hospital to the bridge on the Rawka, including the streets Bóżnicza, POW, Starościańska, Studzienna, Zamkowa Wola, and Zatylna. Its population included both inhabitants of Rawa and refugees from other towns in southern Masovia: Skierniewice, Biała Rawska, Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą. The district struggled with disastrous housing and sanitary conditions, mainly due to great overcrowding. Several epidemics of typhoid fever broke out in the ghetto. Many craftsmen working for the local population or for the Germans were taken outside the district every day, which made it possible to smuggle food and other goods inside.

The ghetto became a closed district in 1942, with the Germans fencing its perimeter and placing guard posts at the entrance. Leaving the area was forbidden under pain of death. Food rations were reduced and eventually discontinued. Executions became more and more frequent. The liquidation of the ghetto began at the end of October 1942. The Germans cordoned off the district, forced the prisoners to leave their homes, herded them onto train cars at the station in Drzewica, and transported them to the extermination camp in Treblinka. Many people were killed on the spot during the liquidation action.

After the war, only around a dozen Jews returned to Rawa. The community soon ceased to exist, as most of the Survivors migrated out of the town.

The Jewish cemetery in Rawa Mazowiecka is located on Sójcze Hill, at today’s Kazimierza Wielkiego Street (former Żydomicka Street). It was established before 1775 and covers a rhomboidal plot with an area of ca. 2.557 hectares or less (the register entry has been modified). During World War II, the Germans vandalised the necropolis, dismantling its fence in 1943 and tearing matzevot out of the ground (they were used to build pavements round the town). The process of devastation continued in the post-war period. Tombstones discovered in various spots in Rawa were taken to the cemetery, but – according to the 1953 report of the Social and Cultural Association of Jews – they were gradually plundered from the site (plans were made in the 1960s to shoot a film about the necropolis; at the time, it was said to still hold many matzevot). The cemetery was officially closed by the decision of the administrative authorities in 1967.

In the spatial development plan adopted in the 1970s, the cemetery was included in an area designated for a housing estate, but the project was never implemented. The plans to lay sewage pipes on the premises was also abandoned.

The description

The cemetery was entered into the register of monuments under the number 872 A, by the decision dated 20 March 1992. No permanent traces of the fence, buildings, gate, tombstones, or burial sections in the necropolis have survived to the present day. The area is overgrown with grass and shrubs. Two large fragments of matzevot dating back to the 19th century can be found in the norther part of the cemetery, but they do not mark the appropriate graves, having been returned to the site after the war. A monument commemorating the Jews of Rawa buried in the necropolis was placed at its edge in 2017 on the initiative of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage.

Description copyright owner: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews