According to the information provided by Andrzej Kirmiel at www.sztetl.org.pl , the Jewish cemetery in Babimost was probably founded in the first half of the 18 th century, on the then outskirts of the town at today's Konstytucji 3 Maja Street. Between the two world wars, the cemetery was surrounded by the wall and the sign that spanned the gate bore a sentence in German: "Those whom you bewail are sheltered in this holy place. Their bodies turn into ashes, their soul is eternal".

In the second half of the 1920s, as the Jewish population declined, a local synagogue was sold and proceeds were allocated to the cemetery. It reportedly survived the Nazi rule in a relatively good condition and was destroyed only in the times of the Polish People's Republic. Headstones were removed in the 1960s and the cemetery site was zoned for development.

A monument at the Jewish burial site in Babimost was unveiled in June 2009. It bears the Polish inscription: "Here was the Jewish cemetery in Babimost. The Jews had contributed to the Babimost community for decades. Before the outbreak of the second world war the local Jewish population amounted to several dozen Jews. During Holocaust, the Nazi exterminated the Jews in Babimost. May they rest in peace." Below are Hebrew letters TNCBH which abbreviate a sentence which traditionally concludes Jewish epitaphs translated into: "May his/her soul be tied together in the circle of eternal life ".

text: K. Bielawski
translation: Małgorzata Ławer
photo: Françoise Lesniewski