Cmentarze Observations

Sometimes we get unplaned results as an add-on. Some of these are interesting enough to be mentioned here.

War Cemeteries

The selection criteria "very remote location" also turned up a lot of cemeteries in the area near the river Bzura. Many of them turned out to be war cemeteries dated back to the time of the beginning of World War II (September 1939).

These small war cemeteries once more show the absurdities of war. The crosses for the Polish soldiers show Polish names as well as many German names.

Old Polish Cemeteries

Another unusual fact was, that some of the cemeteries turned out to be abandoned old cemeteries which showed only Polish names and only Polish inscriptions. It cannot be assumed that these are cemeteries of the colonists.

Some of these cemeteries might have been private cemeteries. Others were abandoned some time after the church building was destroyed, like the cemetery at Jamno.

But a more realistic reason might be found in the transfer of the responsibility for the cemeteries to the administrative communities. Many of the small and remote confessional or private cemeteries were closed down and large central cemeteries were built.

Mariavit Cemeteries

The Mariavit Church has significant influence in the area of Płock. In the East of Płock there is a big Mariavit cemetery which is still in use. Other places, like the small Mariavit cemetery near Nowosiadło seem to be abandoned.

Jewish Cemeteries

Till the Nazi occupation of Poland in 1939 there were quite a lot Jewish cemeteries in Poland. Most of the Polish citys had about 50% Jewish inhabitants and every small city had a Jewish cemetery. During the Nazi regime these cemeteries were destroyed; gravestones were misused to pave the new streets.

Today some of these Jewish cemeteries, like the one in Gąbin, are fenced in and marked. Some of the gravestones have been brought back and were used to create a monument at the cemetery.

Other Jewish cemeteries, like the one near Iłów, don't show any signs of what they are.

Finding these unmarked Jewish cemeteries is not possible using modern Polish maps, since they don't show any of the Jewish cemeteries.

But the old WIG maps (Wojskowego Instytutu Geografycznego) seem to show all kind of cemeteries, using different symbols for christian and non christian cemeteries.

Jutta Dennerlein, April 2008