Here’s a roundup of recent news related to Jewish cemeteries in Poland, from Virtual Shtetl (and other sources)
Volunteers worked to clean up the vast Jewish cemetery in Lodz
More than 20 volunteers took part the weekend of July 20-21, in a clean-up operation planned to take place each month and organized by the Monumentum Iudaicum Lodzense Foundation
Three cast-iron grave markers discovered at a monastery near Żarki
The three cast-iron markers, whose epitaphs are still legible, were discovered during construction works on the grounds of the Pauline monastery in Leśniów, in a building that served as a hospital before WW2. The plaques are believed to have been located originally in the Jewish cemetery in nearby Żarki. They are currently being kept in the local cultural center in Żarki, which is housed in the former synagogue at ul. Moniuszki 2. According to the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, Poland’s Chief Rabbi, Michael Schudrich, has agreed to affix the cast-iron markers to the wall of the new Jewish cemetery in Żarki, on ul. Polna. If not there, may be displayed in cultural center’s museum.
The town of Żarki, near Czestochowa in south-central Poland, actively promotes its Jewish history and heritage with a Jewish Culture Trail in English and Polish that is accessible on the town’s web site.
Restoration work begins at Jewish cemetery in Błędów
The municipality and local residents in Błędów, a village near Grójec in central Poland, have begun regular work to clear the Jewish cemetery on ul. Nowy Swiat of vegetation and rubble. The cemetery was devastated during and after WW2; it served as a gravel pit, and Jewish headstones were used for constructing houses and barns and as millstones. Local citizens, backed by the municipality, formed a committee to restore and maintain the cemetery in 1996. Fragments of gravestones discovered in town were brought back there.
See pictures of the cemetery here.
Monuments marking destroyed Jewish cemeteries erected in Łabiszyn and Strzelno
U.S. volunteers restore the Jewish cemetery in Zambrów
July 6-13, Zambrów hosted 19 volunteers and a caretaker from the United States to work on the restoration of the Jewish cemetery. They also took part in workshops about the history of Podlasie Jews. The project to restore the cemetery was launched by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage (FODŻ) together with The Matzevah Foundation. This year, FODŻ plans to start building a fence around the cemetery, which is due to be finished next summer. A memorial wall using fragments of gravestones is planned. Already last year a group of US volunteers removed vegetation that had covered the headstones and a memorial plaque funded by The Matzevah Foundation and Michael H. Traison Fund for Poland was officially unveiled.
See a photo gallery of this summer’s work here
2 comments on “Jewish Cemetery News from Poland”
Bonjour
désoler de vous écrire en français mais je ne connais pas l’anglais .je suis a la recherche de tous ce qui concerne le monument qui se trouve sur le cimetière de KRASNIK en POLOGNE .
Je fais parti de la Société Des Amis de krasnik en France et nous aimerions savoir ce qui était
écrit sur le monument a la date de son inauguration après la guerre de 1939-1945.
J’ai écrit plusieurs mails a la mairie de Krasnik sans recevoir de réponse .
Si vous pouviez m’aider je vous en serais très reconnaissant !
Bien a vous et encore merci
Roger Teper
roger.teper@gmail.com
I wish the cemetery in Brezg Dolny, formerly called Dyhernfurth, which served Breslau Jewry too until the city built its own cemetery, could be fixed but it was totally destroyed AFTER the war. Photos of it exist including one in my own possession of my Germany family in 1909 standing beside the grave of Rabbi Aaron ben Chaim Kroner, their grandfather. Hopefully the city will mark it in honor of their 650th anniversary this year and next year at the conference they are having on Polish Jewry.