Memorial to the murdered Jews of Ciechanów
Pomnik dla pomordowanych Żydów Ciechanowa
The medium-sized Polish town of Ciechanów was incorporated into the German Reich at the beginning of the Second World War as Zichenau. The town was to be redesigned in the National Socialist style, Poles and Jews were to be removed. In November 1942 the SS murdered almost all Jews from Ciechanów.
History
Ciechanów with its landmark, a medieval castle, is situated approximately 80 km north of Warsaw. After the First Partition of Poland at the end of the 18th century the town briefly became part of Prussia, then became part of the Russian Empire until the restoration of an independent Polish state in 1918. Jews lived in Ciechanów since the middle ages, in the 19th century they even formed the majority of the town's population. Their religious life was shaped by Hasidism, and they spoke Yiddish among themselves. On the eve of the Second World War approximately 4,650 Jews lived in the town, at that time still almost one third of its population. Already on the first days of the war Ciechanów was overrun by the German Wehrmacht and renamed Zichenau soon thereafter. In October 1939 the region was incorporated into the German Reich as the administrative district Zichenau. The district was populated by approximately 900,000 Poles, 80,000 Jews and 11,000 Germans. Shortly afterwards the German administration started to deport Poles and Jews to occupied Poland, many of them were shot in the course of this.
From 1941 Ciechanów was to be redesigned in National Socialist style, therefore large parts of the town were demolished. Jewish women and men older than 14 had to conduct forced labour during the reconstruction. Many Jews became homeless and had to move in a ghetto in a very confined space with other Jews. Their living conditions were catastrophic, furthermore, Jews were repeatedly publicly executed.
On November 6, 1942 all of the town's Jews were rounded up, those deemed fit for work were committed to Upper Silesia by the German administration. The next day elderly men and women as well as sick people were shot in the castle. The remaining Jews were abducted to the ghetto of Mława (German: Mielau) by the SS and from there to the extermination camps of Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Victims
Of the approximately 4,650 Jews who lived in Ciechanów before the Second World War only about 200 survived the German occupation. Of the altogether 80,000 Jews in the whole administrative district Zichenau presumably 4,000 survived at the most. Besides Jews thousands of Poles from the region became victims of resettlements, forced labour and mass shootings.
Remembrance
Since the Second World War there is no Jewish community left in Ciechanów, and only few traces bear witness to the Jewish history of the town. On the premises of the razed New Jewish Cemetery a memorial stone dedicated to the murdered Jews of Ciechanów was erected by the end of the 1950s. The initiative came from a French association of former inhabitants of Ciechanów. The inscription is in Polish and Hebrew and reads:”Here rest the mortal remains of Jews murdered by Hitlerite occupants. Honoured be their memory”.
The best known Ciechanów memorial remembering the town's fate in the war was built in 1988. It shows a monumental metal eagle, Poland's heraldic animal, on its wings are bold reliefs depicting soldiers. On the pedestal the words »Struggle, Martyrdom, Victory« are inscribed. The memorial was erected at the initiative of local patriots, the work was designed by the sculptor Henryk Wróblewski.
Open
The memorials are accessible at all times.
Contact
ul. Gwardii Ludowej
06-400 Ciechanów
