There was no Jewish cemetery in Rutki when my ancestors were there. They did have one in later years, but earlier, they used the cemetery in Zambrów. I didn’t visit anything else in the city.
This was a depressing stop. Though I’ve posted photos from the Łomza Jewish cemeteries already, this is the first one I visited (besides Warsaw, where I didn’t go inside). Once I found the entrance right on the main road, I was both expecting and also not expecting what I saw.
At first, all I saw was a field. Was there really no trace of the cemetery besides the sign? I couldn’t remember if I’d read anything about this cemetery. Was it being restored or was there nothing left? I walked in and soon saw traces of a cemetery. The farther up the hill, the more I saw. And it was depressing. I don’t find cemeteries depressing in general, but the condition of this one was abysmal.
The one bright point was that it was obviously being cared for, what was left of it. The grass and weeds were recently enough cut so it was not an overgrown mess.
I’m sure I had a few ancestors buried in this cemetery.
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- Zambrow Jewish Cemetery
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- Empty Field
Was this all that was left of the cemetery? A hilly field?
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- Evidence of a Cemetery
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- Gravestone
Some were covered with grass clippings.
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- Gravestone
Some were buried even more.
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- Gravestones
Others were in pieces, or were pieces from several gravestones.
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- Yitzhak ben Yaakov
Some were readable. Died on Shom Tov, Hebrew for good day, meaning a holiday.
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- Sara Rivka bat Meyer
Died 12 Kislev. I can't make out the year from the picture.
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- Top of the Hill
Looking back toward the cemetery.
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- Humans Were Here
And they left some garbage behind.
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- Gravestones
I walked towards the forested area.
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- Gravestone Pieces
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- Moshe Shmoel ben Yehoshua Betzalel
Died 12 Shevat 5672 - 31 January 1912.
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- Forested Area
I'm assuming the trees grew in after the cemetery was abandoned.
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- Daughter of Yitzhak
It's hard to read this from the photo, probably difficult in person too.
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- Mostly Intact Gravestone - Moshe
The plant is covering too much to read his father or the date.
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- Edge of the Hill
It didn't look like there was anywhere to stand in front of these to see them. I was getting a little creeped out to explore further.
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- Rakhel bat Mo Baruch
Died in Adar. I can't see the rest of the date from this photo.
A new memorial was placed in this cemetery less than three weeks after I visited, with further plans to continue cleaning, restoring, and building a new fence around it.
That web site doesn’t say that the cemetery was destroyed in the war, only that it was “gradually falling into ruins” after the war. But there had to be more stones than what I saw. What happened to them? Or were there really that few burials? Maybe the cemetery went even deeper into the forested area.
The URL of this post is http://idogenealogy.com/blog/2012/09/07/zambrow-jewish-cemetery/.
All photos and content Copyright 2012 by Banai Lynn Feldstein.
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