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ID: dok-000889-P

Cemetery in Raduń

ID: dok-000889-P

Cemetery in Raduń

Church cemetery with Polish gravestone monuments. Documentation was made for the cemetery (1 card stored in the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage). Information about the cemetery has been published (see bibliography).

According to Anna Lewkowska, Jacek Lewkowski and Wojciech Walczak, in the eastern part of Radunia there is a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary of the Rosary. The square around it has a square plan and is surrounded by a stone wall, into which an epitaph plaque of Rev. Julian Jurkiewicz is embedded. It reads: "PRIEST JULIAJAN JURKIEWICZ / PARISH PRIEST IN RADUŃ / DIED 30 OCTOBER / 1936. AT THE AGE OF 49 / PRIESTHOOD OF 26 YEARS / REQUIESCAT IN PACE / FAMILY". There is only one gravestone in the churchyard behind the church. The inscription on it reads: "KSIĄDZ ROMAN PANOCHA / WIKARY W RADUNIU / LIVED 36 YEARS DIED 19 FEBRUARY 1948 / r. ASKS FOR 3 HAIL MARY". The entire establishment is maintained in good condition.

Lewkowski and Walczak also describe an active Catholic cemetery. It has the plan of an irregular quadrangle and a 2.3 ha area fenced with a stone wall. The eastern part was created in the first half of the 19th century, the western part at the beginning of the next century. About a dozen tombstones remain from the 19th century, the rest are from the 1st half of the 20th century and the present day. The oldest, from 1846, has the following inscription engraved by J. Horbaczewski: "SAWICKA Z DAŃKOWSKICH FRANCISZKA 1846". The aforementioned authors report that "due to the filling up of the cemetery and the lack of space for new burials there is a danger that in the near future all the oldest gravestones may be destroyed."

There is also a Jewish cemetery in Radun. Lewkowski and Walczak write that it has a rectangular plan (contemporary, the original plan is difficult to determine) and a 2.8 ha area surrounded by a concrete fence. It is divided into two parts: a northern part with old burials and a southern part without graves. Quoting the researchers cited above, it is worth mentioning that in the cemetery "there is a mass grave of Radun Jews murdered by the Nazis in May 1942. It is a rectangular plot about 60 m long, fenced with a metal fence. In the centre of the plot is a tall stele made of black granite. On the stele are inscriptions in Russian, English and Hebrew commemorating the victims of the Holocaust: "ZDJES POKOITSJA 2130 JEWRIEJEW ZWJERSKI UNICZTOŻEJNYCH GERMANS I ICH POSOBNIKAMI ON 10 MAY 1942 G.", "2130 YEWS WERE SLAUGHTERED AND BURIED IN THIS MASS GRAVE BY THE GERMANS AND THEIR HELPERS ON 10 MAY 1942". The cemetery contains dozens of 19th century gravestones and 7 concrete sarcophagi devoid of inscriptions. The cemetery is maintained in very good condition.

Bibliography:
  • „Cmentarze polskie poza granicami kraju” , raport, oprac. B. Gutowski, Warszawa 2022 (maszynopis).
  • Lewkowska Anna, Lewkowski Jacek, Walczak Wojciech, „Zabytkowe cmentarze na Kresach Wschodnich Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej. Województwo wileńskie na obszarze Republiki Białoruś”, Warszawa 2007.
Author:
Bartłomiej Gutowski, Dawid Mendrek
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