Jews set up two cemeteries in Annopol. One of them was located near the synagogue at Świeciechowska Street. It was opened until 1792 when the authorities ordered to relocate all the cemeteries out of town for sanitary reasons. All the matzevas were demolished and the area was redeveloped for other purposes.

A new cemetery was set up quite near the old one, at Radomska Street, on the rectangular area of 0.33ha. Wacław Flisiński, the author of "Wspominki rachowskie"i wrote: "the new Jewish cemetery in Annopol was set up in the field, outside the town, between buildings at Bóżnicza Street and the grove in Rachów". The new cemetery was demolished during and after WWII.

Little is known about the history of the new cemetery. "The Annopol Memorial Book" provides a story dated back to the end of the nineteenth century: "In 1895 a plague broke out in Rachov and its environs. (....) The community leaders gathered in the Rabbi's home and decided to do something which (according to a belief then prevalent) would ward off the danger: to marry off two impoverished young people, in the cemetery. The two, the son of Saneh the fisherman and the daughter of the cemetery caretaker, were married in the new cemetery. All the Jews in town were there. After the ceremony, everyone went to the market place, where a sumptuous "cocktail party" had been set up, with whisky and delicacies. The people ate and drank and enjoyed themselves; even the abstainers partook freely. Shortly afterwards the plague was gone".

The cemetery has been recently restored. It was cleaned and fenced off with wire netting. A modest monument was erected to commemorate the Shoah victims. The brick pillar carries the plaque with the following inscription: "In honour of men, women and children from Annopol who were murdered during the second world war". Some matzevas and their remnants can be found grown over by the grass. The cemetery is placed on the list of vintage buildings under no. 408/89.

text: K. Bielawski
translation: Małgorzata Ławer
photos: Jacques Lahitte