The exhibition Mazevot in Everyday Use has been on at the National Museum of History in Minsk, Belarus since early February and closes Feb. 23. It showcases photographs by the Polish photographer Łukasz Baksik, documenting the various — inappropriate — uses to which Jewish gravestones from destroyed cemeteries have been put, particularly as building material.
Jewish tombstones, embellished with symbols and inscriptions were used to pave streets and build walls. The slabs were also used for stove, floors and pavement curb construction works. Throughout Polish villages, there are hundreds of grinding wheels made of matzevot. Hebrew inscriptions on their surfaces have not faded away yet.
I have been tracking the history of Jewish tombstones. I talk to people who are aware of what they have in their backyards but do not feel uncomfortable with that. I discover the history of a family whose members are spread throughout the world. One matzevah helped them to unite fifty years after the Shoah.
The Minsk Jewish Campus reports:
Minsk as a place for the exhibition was not a random choice. For over three years the Museum of the History of Polish Jews has been running projects on Jewish cultural heritage preservation in cooperation with the Jewish History and Culture Museum of Belarus. The result of their joint effort can be seen at the exhibition “Searching For the Legacy…Belarusian-Polish expeditions for study and preservation of cultural heritage of Belarusian Jewry. 2010-2011”, opened in October 2011 in Minsk Jewish Campus. It became the first of the series of exhibitions raising awareness of Belarusian public of the history and culture of Jews in Belarus. The exhibition features some 60 photos of Jewish cultural monuments in Belarus and Poland.