We are sad to learn of the death last week of Krzysztof Kolibski, a stone mason from Wąwolnica, Poland, who worked with Jewish cemetery preservation groups to carve matzevot and commemorative monuments in several Jewish cemeteries.
“Rest in peace, my friend,” Poland’s Rabbinical Commission for Cemetery Matters wrote on its Facebook page.
The Matzevah Foundation wrote on Facebook that Kolibski passed away unexpectedly:
Krzysztof was a gifted stonemason, who without any formal training in Hebrew, transcribed and carved by hand using only a hammer and chisel, Hebrew letters into the face of matzevot. More than likely, he was the first non-Jewish Pole to inscribe a matzevah by hand in Poland following WWII.
Krzysztof was a part of a team that worked with us, our partners Fundacja Zapomniane, Komisja Rabiniczna do spraw Cmentarzy, and other activists to hand-carve the monuments that we erected to the memory of Jewish victims murdered during the Shoah. We were planning to continue our work with him this summer in commemorating Jewish victims buried in several mass grave sites. It was an honor for us to know him and work with him. We will miss him deeply.
Kolibski fashioned the Holocaust memorials erected in recent years in the towns of Karmanowice, Rogalów, and Wołomin. Last year he restored the Karmonowice monument, which had been vandalized.
Last June, the Matzevah Foundation and the Zapomniane Foundation launched a crowd-funding campaign to help Kolibski get back on his feet after someone apparently using a bulldozer destroyed his workshop.
May his soul be bound up in the bond of life; may his memory be a blessing!
3 comments on “Poland: death of Krzysztof Kolibski, a Polish stonemason who carved Holocaust memorials”
This man created a new matzevah, incorporating the old one, for my paternal grandmother buried in Otwock. I met him several times – a lovely man who took great pride in his work and made certain I was happy with the end result – he did a great job. He will be sadly missed – long life to his family and may his memory be a blessing to all who knew him.
Thanks for this lovely tribute
Thank you for this writing on the stonemason. Sorrow comes hard when an individual with these skills is no longer in our midst. That he understood this language and need to preserve names of people murdered during pre WW II and during the Holocaust, destruction of families and towns, (shetles) thrown into large ravines. The names on the cemetery stones becomes important to the memories and reconstruction of the families histories/biographies become later input into computer files.
I grew up in Michigan with no information as to my background. Transported from one city in the summer back home to attend school. I knew little except both grandmother’s could cook and bake well. The Northern European history of one grandmother I knew through sewing skills she had been taught. Who I am today is a puzzle board. I hope the history of those lost in Eastern and Western Europe will be improved. This post on the stonemason was superior topics invaluable to the countries where so much work to revonstruct time, well done in this. Thank you for the posts