Virtual Shtetl reports that lack of rainfall has lowered the level of the Vistula River to such an extent that long-submerged objects can be found — including fragments of Jewish tombstones. The discoveries were made by Rafał Rachciński, who went fishing from the river bank.
The discovery has drawn the interest of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Last Wednesday, members of the Virtual Shtetl portal, accompanied by Rafał Rachciński, inspected the shoal in the middle of the Vistula. They found the head of a matzevot, on which two verses of an epitaph have been preserved: ‘Here rests a woman from a good family […]’ and small fragments of other tombstones with single letters. No one knows how the matzevos were moved to the center of the Vistula bed.
In all probability, the matzevos come from the Jewish cemetery in Bródno and were used for paving the river bottom after the end of WWII. We have notified the Jewish Religious Community in Warsaw, the Cemetery Rabbinical Committee and the Nissenbaum Foundation.