Several recent developments in Poland highlight the complexity of the challenge of what’s to be done — or what to do — with Jewish heritage that is has disappeared, been abused or otherwise all but lost to memory.
We note here three recent cases, as reported by Virtual Shtetl. They include creative responses — but also one case where conditions contribute to the difficulty of finding a solution.
What to do with a hidden mikveh?
Virtual Shtetl reports that a local school teacher wants to save the former mikveh in the town of Żelechów, which was built over it decades ago — a simple metal lid on the surface of a lawn covers a hole that opens above the steps leading down to the mikveh basin, which are the only parts of the facility left intact.
Local highschool teacher Krystyna Wieczorkiewicz, whose students have been researching the history of Żelechów Jews as part of the Restoring the Memory project, wants to secure the mikveh in a way that will enable it to be displayed. The site is not registered as a historic landmark.
Its basin can be for example covered by a transparent pane, with an information board placed beside it. As for now, they are only initial ideas. However, a proper project is required to apply for funds.
“Perhaps some architecture student of Jewish descent could help us?” Krystyna Wieczorkiewicz wondered. “Maybe we will find a professor of architecture who would ask his students to prepare a project of ‘a monument over a mikveh’”.
Transparent matzevot to mark destroyed Jewish cemeteries
Only a fraction of the 1,200 or so known Jewish cemeteries in Poland had gravestones remaining on them. Many have been completed destroyed and built over — by parking lots, tram lines, streets, playgrounds and more. Few of these places are marked by plaques or memorials.
Virtual Shtetl reports that the photographer Piotr Pawlak has launched a photographic project called “Currently Absent” to bring back the memory of these places.
Working with Katarzyna Kopecka and Jan Janiak
They place matzevot made of transparent material on the destroyed cemeteries and photograph them. Their photographs will be used in an album and at a travelling exhibition to be displayed in a number of towns and cities.
On photograph, for example, shows a transparent matzevah standing on a busy tram stop in Lodz — which was built over a Jewish cemetery.
“The project will result in reconstructing the non-existent traces of history, and through this will refer them to our everyday life,” Piotr Pawlak said. “The unreal transparency of the matzevot is to symbolize the disappearance of sacred places.”
Pawlak and his team are seeking funding and hope that their project might have the same consciousness-raising impact as Łukasz Baksik’s project Matzevot for Everyday Use, which showed Jewish gravestones that had been used by building, paving, millstones, etc.
How to dismantle a pavement made with uprooted matzevot
Virtual Shtetl reports that it has been contacted by a man named Andrzej Kujaczyński, from the town of Wąbrzeźno (Kujawsko-Pomorskie Province) who “for some time” has been trying to return the 150 or so fragments of matzevot that had been used by the Germans in World War II to pave the yard in front of his house.
Virtual Shtetl writes that doing this will not be so easy, given the condition of the Jewish cemetery in Wąbrzeźno.
It has been destroyed, with buildings constructed on its site. Simply transfering the matzevot to the location will not solve the problem. It would be recommended to build an exhibition of gravestones to commemorate the people buried in this place and the town’s entire Jewish community. However, this would require cooperation on the part of local authorities and Jewish organizations.
V.S. has meanwhile notified the Jewish Cemeteries Rabbinical Commission of the issue.
3 comments on “Poland notes: What’s to be done?”
It is not that easy to tackle the willingness to remember .today the 20 the of March 2016: at that very day in 1942, 1943 and 1944 deportation and murder of my people .Locations: Polish cities ,at that time
Zolkiew,Rzeszow : destination Belzec
Rohatyn :murder
Czestochowa : execution …….
Some understanding,another subject , may provide the book by Judith Perrignon :Les Chagrins ,Éditions Stock,2010:” Il n’y a plus de trace de rien là-bas ,……………,plante des arbres et décrété l’insouciance .”
thank you for keeping us aware of the many activities and many needs in Europe
You’re welcome! Thanks for your interest!