Poland is expected to invest 100 million zlotys (approx. €24 million) to restore Warsaw’s main Jewish cemetery on Okopowa st. thanks to a law approved earlier this month.
Parliament approved the measure by an overwhelming vote of 416-4, with six abstentions. President Andrzej Duda signed the bill this week.
“Thanks to this law will be possible to plan and carry out long-term conservation and cleanup work at the site of one of the most important Polish cemeteries,” an announcement December 8 on the Ministry of Culture’s web site said.
The Okopowa st. Jewish cemetery comprises more than 30 hectares and includes scores of thousands of grave markers, which range from simple matzevot, to grand mausolea, to striking sculptural representations. Much of the site is overgrown, but more than 82,000 grave markers have been documented by the Foundation for the Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland and information about them put online in a searchable database. It is owned by the Jewish community of Warsaw and still used as an active Jewish burial place.
The government is expected to transfer the funds to Poland’s Foundation for Cultural Heritage. The Culture Ministry web site said the said the funds would be invested, and the income would be used for the renovation of historic tombstones and care of the landscaping and vegetation.
The work will be carried out in cooperation with the Warsaw Jewish Community.
The Foundation has already been carrying out restoration work in the cemetery, including volunteer work initiatives.
Last year, the Foundation restored 24 grave monuments in the cemetery that were designed by the pre-World War II sculptor Abraham Ostrzega, born in 1889 and killed at Treblinka during the Holocaust, who was noted for his tombstone sculpture. The restoration work was funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Last month, the Foundation launched a Facebook crowd-sourcing campaign to choose the next grave monument it should restore.
3 comments on “Poland: government to invest €24 million to restore Warsaw Jewish cemetery”
Given that very few of the countries whose Jewish cemeteries were thus destroyed, I congratulate Poland very warmly indeed for the past work and for this praiseworthy decision to continue. I could wish that countries such as Belarus would do the same in such historical sites as Volozyn where the only Jewish cemetery is a heartbreaking experience. And if, this should have the result of bringing relatives or descendants of former citizens who made Volozyn world famous in the past, why so much the better.
I am myself one of those descendants, and my recent experience in Volozyn was tragic!
Bernice Shaaker Dubois
how many of the stones are still in the correct location? Maybe I am a bit cynical but the restoration will probably bring in tourists looking to locate long dead relatives and thus much needed currency… just do not believe the restoration is being done out of the kindness of their hearts!
Would they be able to locate the correct grave site for the tombstones that were sort of just placed anywhere after they were dug out of roads, housing etc.?