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 so-called New Jewish Cemetery is located on Brzeska 60, right opposite the Catholic cemetery. It was established in 1810, when Prince Konstanty Czartoryski issued a regulation ordering the Jewish community in Międzyrzec to close the existing cemetery and organise a new burial place in an area located away from urban buildings. At the same time, he gave the municipality a plot of land located on Trakt Brzeski (currently Brzeska street). The original area of the new Jewish cemetery was 5,506.71 square meters; was successively expanded, up to the current size of 2.8 ha.

It is known that before 1939, the cemetery was fenced with a red brick wall, which has survived to this day, had two gates, and on its edge there was a small funeral home (still preserved).

During World War II, the cemetery was devastated by the Germans. By order of the occupation authorities, some of the tombstones were transported deeper into the Reich, others were used for construction work. During the deportation action to the German Nazi extermination camp in October 1942, the Germans executed people of Jewish origin on the cemetery grounds. The bodies of the victims were buried at the murder site.

The cemetery also served as a burial ground after the war. In the years 1945–1947, several people of Jewish origin murdered in Międzyrzec Podlaski and its surroundings were buried here, including 23-year-old Srul Zylbersztejn, a former soldier of the partisan unit, who was murdered near the Sokule station, and Szymon Finkelsztejn, who also tragically died. Occasional burials took place until 1973. The last person buried there was Mosze Kaufman.

After the liberation, the few Jews who remained in Międzyrzec started to renovate the destroyed necropolis. Thanks to the involvement of, among others, Mordechaj Ekhojz, Motel Barbe and Jankiel Rozengarn, many tombstones found in various parts of the city were returned to the cemetery. Thanks to the financial support of Abram and Sara Finkelstein from the United States, the damaged fence was repaired and a monument to the victims of the Holocaust was erected. The exhumed remains of people murdered on September 18, 1943 in the mass execution at Piaski were also moved to the cemetery.

In the 1990s, restoration work was carried out on the cemetery on the initiative of Jews from Międzyrzec. The bushes were cut down, some alleys were paved, and the weathering wall was secured. In 1995, the Międzyrzecz local community from New York founded a monument and a commemorative plaque on the wall of the preserved pre-burial home. In 2004, some of the tombstones were built into the cemetery wall.

In 1997 and 2000, Andrzej Trzciński and Jerzy Sobota carried out a partial inventory of the necropolis and estimated that there were about a thousand tombstones in various states of preservation. Nowadays, only ad hoc maintenance is carried out, which consists in mowing the access to the nearest objects, including the graves of Holocaust victims. In this situation, the total number of approximately 1,000 tombstones given by the sources should be taken with a grain of salt, with no possibility of verification at the moment due to the intensive natural overgrowth. The cemetery was entered into the register of monuments under decision No. A/172 of December 15, 1988, taken by WKZ Biała Podlaska.

Author of the note: Magda Lucima

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