We Remember Jewish Mlawa!

M.R.I.
Mlawa Remembrance Initiative

Dedicated to the memory of the 7000 and more Jews of Mlawa, who perished in the Holocaust.

Dr. Zeev Jonis: "The Old Home Town"

ד"ר זאב יוניס: הבית הישן  (עברית, ספר יזכור "מלאבה היהודית", ת"א 1984) 

Mlawa: "Tepper Gasse" Zdunska Street

אירגון יוצאי מלאבה

בישראל

רח' שמעון בן צבי 23/20

גבעתיים 53630

טל' 00-972-3-7312746

Invitation for the Annual Remembrance Assemblies 2006 

Invitation for the Annual Remembrance Assemblies 2007 

Invitation for the Annual Remembrance Assemblies 2008 

Invitation for the Annual Remembrance Assemblies 2009

Israeli Delegation Visits  Mlawa 2008  

Email from a Polish Ex-Resient of Mlawa

2.5.2008

Pinkas Hakehilot, Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Poland

Vol IV: Warsaw and Its Region

Published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1989

Mława  מלאווה

(Warsaw District; Plock Province)

Pages 280 - 287

Written by  Shmuel Levin & Wila Orbach

Translated by Gil Levy a high school student. Gil is the grandchild of Joseph Herman, one of Mława’s surviving Jews.

Edited by Ada Holtzman

Published with the permission of Yad Vashem

 English     |      Hebrew

In 1998 following the initiative of Mlawa Landsmanschaft the memorial monument was dedicated. It was made from Matzevot, which the Nazis removed from the Jewish cemetery. The seven pillars of tombstones and symbolizes the Jewish Menorah.

The archive of Mlawa Landsmanschaft in Israel has been moved to the Ghetto Fighters' House Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, Israel - for preservation to future generations.

Mlawa, Poland
Written in 1981, submitted to the Web Site by Mlawa Landsmanschaft in Israel.

5307: 2023

104.9 kilometers NNW of Warsaw

Source of the table: Pinkas Hakehilot, Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Poland, Vol IV Warsaw and Its Region, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1989, page 280.

Mlawa - Town in the province of Warsaw, N. E.  - central Poland. The earliest documented information on the Jewish community is dated 1543. It is included in a report of a case of blood libel, which mentions the name of the Parnas of the community - Berechia (pol. Boguslaw). In 1569there were 23 Jewish families living in the town and in 1578 they had increased to 34. Their main sources of livelihood were the livestock trade and crafts. A charge of desecrating the host in 1670, and fires which devastated Mlawa in 1659and 1692 caused the number of Jews gradually to decrease. On the other hand, the Jewish population of the suburb of Zabrody, which was beyond the area of municipal jurisdiction, and the surrounding villages' increased.

Until 1753, the community of Mlawa was under the jurisdiction of that of Ciechanow. The growth of economic activity in the region during the last third of the 18th century brought an increase in the Jewish population.  The 1765 census showed 70 Jewish families numbering 487 poll tax payers in Mlawa and the neighboring villages. Fifteen houses in the town were owned by Jews. Sources of 1781 mention a Jewish population of 718.  After the Prussian conquest (1793), the town was granted a De Non Tolerandis Judaeies privilege, and the Jews then moved to the suburb of Zabrody.

The Jews returned to Mlawa with the establishment of the grand Duchy of Warsaw (1807). In 1808 they numbered 137, 15% of the population. Following restrictions on Jewish settlement, a special quarter was established in 1824' and only there (with some rare exceptions) were Jews permitted to live. In addition, the entry of Jews from other regions was almost completely prohibited, because of the location of the town in the border area. In 1827, there were 792 Jews (36% of the population) living in the town. The ghetto and the other restrictions on residence and ownership of real estate were abolished in 1862. Once the railway lines from Mlawa to Warsaw (1877) and Gdansk (1883) were opened' the trade in grain, livestock, wood, and army supplies, from which many Jews earned their livelihood' increased considerably. Between 1857 and 1897' the Jewish population of Mlawa grew from 1650 to 4854 (41% of the population).

The influence of the Chasidism manifested itself among the Jews of Mlawa from the beginning of the 19th century. With the consolidation of their economic situation at the close of that century, the influence of Mitnaggdim circles gained in strength (in 1870, R' Wolf Lipszic was appointed Rabbi of the town). The last Rabbi of Mlawa, R' Jehiel Moses Begalowicz (appointed 1901), was known as one of the Mitnaggdim. In the late 1890s, a Chovevei Zion circle was organized in the town. During the revolution and pogroms of 1905-06, the "Bund" and the "Po'alei Zion" wielded considerable influence among the Jewish workers' youth and intelligentsia of Mlawa. The Jewish author Joseph Opatoshu, the Hebrew author Jakir Warsawski, and the publicist and the leader of the Bund in Poland, Victor Alter, were born in Mlawa, where they also began their careers. Between 1921 and 1927 the Jewish population of Mlawa increased from 5823 to 6301. A newspaper, "Dos Mlauer Lebn" was published; its editors included Bunim Warszawski, Moses Lichtensztajn and Moses Laska.

At the outbreak of World War II there were about 6500 Jews in Mlawa. At the beginning of November 1939, the Germans destroyed all the synagogues in Mlawa and the vicinity.  The first deportation took place on December 6th, 1940, when 300 Jews were deported to Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Lubartow and Lublin; they shared the fate of the Jews there. The ghetto was established on December 7th-8th, 1940, and liquidated two years later on November 24th, 1942. The last deportations took place from November 10th, 1942, to December 10th, 1942; almost all the Jews were deported to Treblinka death camp. The Jewish community of Mlawa was not reconstructed after the war. Organizations of former residents of Mlawa are active in Israel, United States and Mexico.

Dr. Zeew Icchak Yunis of Blessed Memory ד"ר יצחק זאב יוניס ז"ל

Dr. Zeev Jonis: "The Old Home Town"

ד"ר זאב יוניס: הבית הישן   (עברית, ספר יזכור "מלאבה היהודית", ת"א 1984( פרקים 1-9)  

ד"ר זאב יוניס: הבית הישן   (עברית, ספר יזכור "מלאבה היהודית", ת"א 1984( פרקים 10-17)  

A MAP

City Map:

Jewish Mlawa: Its History * Development * Destruction - The Yizkor Book of Mlawa

Yizkor Book: List of Contents (Hebrew)

The  "Yizkor Book" in  NYPL Web Site

Holocaust in Mlawa: the Path of Agony

Partial List of the Martyrs of Mlawa

ברכת הגימנסיה העברית במלאבה לפתיחת האוניברסיטה העברית הראשונה בירושלים 1925  - Blessing of the Hebrew Gymnasium of Mlawa on the Inauguration of the First Hebrew University in Jerusalem 1925

    זינה מאירפלד מבית פרוכט ממלאבה, בת 90 Zina Meirfeld née Frucht from Mława, 90^th Anniversary

MOISHE (MORRIS)  PEREL of blessed memory - לזכרו של משה פרל

Menachem (Mendel) Beker:  "A Town That Has Been"  "עיר שהייתה"(Hebrew)

Menachem (Mendel) Beker:  "Impressions of a Visit"  "רשמי ביקור" (Hebrew)  

Menachem (Mendel) Beker:  "Impressions of a Visit" (English)

Menachem (Mendel) Beker: Childhood Memoirs - מנחם מנדל בקר: יוזמה ותושיה: חוצות היוצר של ילדי מלאבה

Menachem (Mendel) Beker:  "On Time and on Birth"  "על זמן ועל מולד"(Hebrew) in Honor of Moshe Peles (Poltusker)

Moshe Peles (Poltusker): "Jews and "Goyim" Together"

Avraham Hendel: "My Testimony Against a Nazi Criminal"

Fela Meiboom ne'e Caitak: "Her Sixty Girls"  Hebrew | English

Dedication of the Mlawa Memorial in the Jewish Cemetery  20 July 1998   

The Speech of Jerzy Sliwczynski, Chairman of the "Righteous among the Nations" Organization in Poland (His Father Saved the Zlotnik Family during the Holocaust)

The Speech of Moshe Peles (Poltusker), in the Name of the Mlawa Landsmanschaft in Israel and the Diaspora

Jewish Mlawa Photo Album - from the Simon Wiesental Tolerance Museum Collections 

The Protocols of the Community Committee ועד העדה"" 1925-1929

The Landsmanschaften of Mlawa in America and in Israel

MLAWA, the Jewish Records Indexing Poland - JRI Shtetl CO-OP Mlawa project

JRI - Polish State Archives: Late 19th Century Records for Mlawa

The Tachna Family from Mlawa

Remember IDF American Zionist Hero: Michael Levin

A Picture: Agudat Yisrael in Mlawa 

Submit an Inquiry about your Roots from Jewish Mlawa

Read the Inquiries of Roots Seekers from Jewish Mlawa

M.R.I. (Mlawa Remembrance Initiative) originally posted in May 1998!

Last updated December 10^th, 2009