According to official government statistics, in 1925 the Jewish community of Gniewoszów (Yiddish: גנייבושוב) was estimated at 2,530 persons.

The community owned a brick synagogue, a bath house, a cheder and two cemeteries, one at Oleksowska Street, and a second one at Lubelska.

The Jewish population began to grow sharply by 1940, because there was no permanent German garrison in the town and also, it laid on the Vistula, the convenient crossing point.

Already by early spring of 1940 there were 2,750 Jews in the town (nearly half requiring food assistance), and by October 1940, the Jewish population exceeded 3,000.

On December 22, 1941, a formal (open type) ghetto was registered by the German administration,[3] and in spring of 1942, Jews from surrounding villages were forced to move into it.