Hrubieszow - Old Jewish cemetery (at the corner of Krucza and Targowa Streets)

The old Jewish cemetery (at the intersection of Krucza and Targowa Streets) - It was probably established ca. 1578 r. By virtue of a privilege of King Stefan Batory in the Voivodship district. It was actively used until the outbreak of World War II.Established on the plan of an irregular polygon, it covered an area of 2.5 hectares.The last known burial took place there in 1941. During World War II, the Germans carried out mass executions of the Jewish population at the cemetery, and used the matzevot to pave roads and squares.In 1945-1946, approx. 100 Jewish survivors from Hrubieszow, with financial support from the Joint, exhumed the bodies of execution victims from the city and surrounding areas to bury them in the cemetery. The necropolis was then fenced with a wooden fence, and some of the tombstones were also collected, and in 1946. In cooperation with the city authorities, a modest monument was erected, which still exists today, with the inscription: "Honoring the martyrs of the Jews of Hrubieszow, victims of bestial Nazi murder. 1939-1944".After the Jews left Hrubieszow, much of the cemetery area was taken over for agricultural and industrial purposes. The tombstones therein were stolen by local residents for construction purposes. By the end of the 1980s, only a few tombstones and a few remnants of damaged gravestones remained in the cemetery. After many years of efforts by Jewish circles, the protection and restoration of the cemetery was taken care of by Hrubieszow resident and mayor at the time - Kazimierz Lukiewicz. In cooperation with local youth and with the support of local opinion makers, he found many preserved matzevot from the Hrubieszow cemetery. In 1990. From the foundation of Abram Scher of Munich, a monument was erected in the form of a granite stele on a pedestal, with an inscription in three languages: "In memory and honor of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust 1939-1945." In 1997. Another memorial in the form of a lapidarium ("Wall of Remembrance") was built, designed by Professor. Wiktor Zin and Abraham Silberstein, funded by the Zamość governor, the Hrubieszow city government and the Union of Hrubieszowians in Israel. The Lapidarium is made up of 76 tombstones - including 48 tombstones embedded in the wall and 28 tombstones placed in front of it. On the horizontal plaque at the monument- lapidarium there is an inscription in three languages: "In honor and memory of the Jews of Hrubieszow victims of the Holocaust.1939-1945".The rest of the surviving tombstones, including fragments of 17th-century tombstones, were buried next to the monument.