Ciechanów was the residence of Abraham B. Raphael Landau, a Hasidic Zaddik referred to as Czechanower (see next entry). The last rabbi of Ciechanów was Hayyim Benjamin Braunroth (1916-1939). The Polish army instigated a pogrom there in 1920. [Natan Efrati]

During World War II Ciechanów was the main town of Bezirk (district) Zichenau, created and incorporated into East Prussia by Hitler's decree of Oct. 26, 1939. Before the outbreak of the war, there were 1,500 to 2,000 Jews living there. The German army entered the town on Sept. 3 & 4, 1939. In October 1939 the Germans began destroying Jewish houses, including the synagogue. A Judenrat was created in the autumn of 1939 and the ghetto, at the end of 1940. A Jewish police force was also set up. At the first deportation, on Dec. 11, 1941, nearly 1,200 Jews were evacuated to the townlet of Nowe Miasto (Neustadt), in the same district. Some Jews were shot. In Nowe Miasto the Jews from Ciechanów lived practically without shelter, and suffered from epidemic diseases. At the end of the summer of 1942 Jews deported from Makow Mazowiecki arrived in Ciechanów. With the final deportation, in November 1942, 1,800 persons left in two transports. The first, consisting of the elderly and weak persons, was taken to the ghetto in Mlawa in the same district; the second transport, composed of younger Jews, was sent to Auschwitz. After this the ghetto was liquidated. A young girl from Ciechanów, Rosa Robota, a member of Ha-Shomer ha-Za'ir, played a heroic role in the revolt of Auschwitz prisoners. About 200 Jews from Ciechanów survived the war, including 120 who returned from the U.S.S.R. The community was not reconstructed after World War II.

L. Lewin, Judenverfolgungen im zweiten schwedisch-polnischen Krieg 1655û1659 (1901), 10; R. Mahler, Hasidut ve-Haskalah be-Galizyah u-ve-Polin (1961), 349; M. Bachner, Sefer Ciechanów, Lebn un Umkum fun a Yidish Shtetl (1949); A. W. Jasny (ed.), Yisker-Bukh fun der Ciechanower Yidisher Kehile (1962), Heb. summary).