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JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE
An Online Resource Centre
POLAND NEWS PAGE
New Monument Commemorates Kielce Pogrom (24 August 2006)
Project to document post-war Jewish Life (23 August 2006)
Mixed reviews for Pope's Visit to Auschwitz (26 July 2006)
Jewish Museum to Open in Warsaw (26 July 2006)
By JHE Editor Samuel Gruber
White/Wash II, by American artist Jack Sal, was dedicated outside Kielce city hall on 4 July 2006
On 4 July 2006 a memorial commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Kielce pogrom was dedicated near Kielce city hall. Funded by the US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, the monument is titled 'White/Wash II,' and was designed by New York artist, Jack Sal, himself the son of Holocaust survivors.
The monument commemorates the over 40 Jews massacred in Kielce in July 1946. Those murdered were Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who had just returned to their hometown. At least 2 non-Jews are also known to have been victims. It is partly intended to address the city's collective amnesia about this event, as well as the lack of local awareness of the key role Jews played in developing pre-War Kielce.
The Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, sent a statement to the ceremony, declaring, 'in free, democratic and law-abiding Poland there is no room for racism and anti-Semitism. They evoke revulsion.' The Polish Chief Rabbi, Michael Schudrich, led memorial prayers at the ceremony, which included the laying of wreaths in front of the three-storey house at Planty Street where the pogrom began, and a memorial service at the Jewish cemetery where Rabbi Schudrich and Edgar Gluck (who is a Commission member and Chief Rabbi of Galicia) read out the names of the victims. The Commission Chairman, Warren Miller, also attended the ceremony, as did Israel's ambassador to Poland, and hundreds of others.
Miller has been instrumental in the erection of several Holocaust memorials in Germany, Austria and Ukraine. He was explicit in his remarks about the horror of the pogrom. 'Today we meet in a peaceful place and a peaceful time for Poland,' he said. 'But on this day 60 years ago, Kielce was not peaceful. At the now-infamous 7-9 Planty Street, on trains leaving Kielce, at the train station, and elsewhere in Kielce more than forty Jews were murdered in cold blood and many others wounded. Regina Fisz and her son were forcibly taken from their home and murdered in the woods. Her son Abram was shot in the head by a policeman - he was three weeks old. Those events - together known as the Kielce pogrom - are remembered not only in Jewish history, not only in Polish history, but in the history of all mankind. The pogrom has special significance because of what happened, and because of when it happened'.
The new monument consists of 750 square cement blocks shaped like a toppled number seven, symbolizing the location and month in which the pogrom took place; as well as 42 randomly placed lead sheets, commemorating the 42 victims. The exterior of the monument is painted in white limewash, a tribute to the role of early Jews in the development of Kielce's limestone industry. The limewash requires continual maintenance, which will be provided by the local government. This, states artist Jack Sal, makes the monument, 'both permanent in structure, but, like a memory, ephemeral in its maintenance'.
Next to the monument is an inscription in Polish, English, and Hebrew. It reads: 'In Memory of Jews Murdered in Kielce 4 July, 1946. Before World War Two, approximately 21,000 Jews lived in Kielce. Most of them were sent to their death by the German occupiers after being deported to the death camp of Treblinka. After the War, some of the Jews who survived the Holocaust returned to Kielce. Other Jews all came to Kielce. They were from small towns of the Kielce Region and former eastern territories of Poland. On 4 July, 1946 a mob attacked and murdered Jews. These events were one of the reasons that Jews who survived the extermination migrated [to] Israel, the United States of America, and other countries. Victims of the pogrom, let this monument be a warning to people and a cry for forgiveness and mutual understanding between neighbours'.
Anti-Semitism runs deep in the history of Kielce, which is a Christian cultural and religious centre. Jews were not allowed to live in the city until 1863, as it was seen as a bad omen if a Jewish person spent one night there. At this time Jews were forced to finish any business during the day, live or stay in nearby villages, and return to Kielce the following morning.
Despite such challenges, local Jews were gradually to build a strong community, as well as contributing extensively to the development of the city as a commercial and industrial hub. Jews were instrumental in establishing the brick-making industry here and in the development of the Warsaw-Vienna railway. Jews also participated in numerous professions and established many cultural and social institutions. The Jewish population grew rapidly, even during times of stagnant growth in other areas. In 1873 there were 974 Jews in Kielce; by 1882 numbers had reached 2,659; and by1897 it was well over 6,000. By the onslaught of the Second World War in 1939, the Jewish population in Kielce numbered more than 20,000.
Jack Sal explored this largely forgotten Jewish past in an installation exhibited in Kielce in 2003 called White/Wash. Working with students from the local Art Institute (Akademia Swictokrzyska), Sal assembled objects associated with Kielce's Jewish past and had them whitewashed, representing the way in which he perceived that the city had covered up this part of its history. The mayor of Kielce then invited Sal to create a permanent monument, to be placed near the city hall. Sal was able to interest US Commission Chairman Warren Miller in the project, and the Commission then raised funds to support the work.
Miller insisted that the story of the pogrom be explicitly told at the monument. The resulting inscription in three languages is a compromise between Polish and American officials and the artist. Controversy continues over the cause, events and results of the Kielce pogrom. In the end all participants chose to focus on memorializing the victims rather than blaming specific perpetrators.
After World War II, it seems only a few hundred Kielce Jews had survived to return to the city. On 1 July, 1946, while these Jews were staying at the former Jewish community centre at 7 Planty Street, the building was surrounded by a mob: a rumour had begun that the Jews were killing Christian children and drinking their blood, and that a Polish boy had been killed in the basement of the centre and his blood used to make matzot (unleavened bread used at Passover).
On 4 July, the centre was attacked, and both there and around the city more than 40 Jews were killed, and many more were wounded. The Polish boy at the centre of the rumours was soon found unharmed in a nearby village.
Polish authorities executed seven people held responsible for the massacre, but the events in Kielce devastated Jews throughout Poland, who began to feel they had little hope for a safe and secure future in the country. The pogrom was one trigger for the mass exodus of surviving Polish Jews.
The commemoration serves as a reminder of those who perished during the war, but it also plays a part in moving Poland forward in its efforts to eliminate racism. Yet anti-Semitic attitudes are still common in Kielce. In May 2006 Jack Sal showed Jewish Heritage Europe a stereotypical painting of an avaricious Jew for sale just 300 metres from the site of the new monument.
A stereotypical image of the 'avaricious Jew',
found on sale in a Kielce gallery in May 2006
Sal hopes that, 'the creation of White/Wash II will bring people to visit the monument in the public area of Kielce and will allow a meeting of the past and present out in the open, a forum of great importance if this wound of Planty Street is to heal.'
For related stories, see:
"Jewish artist creates memorial for post-WWII pogrom in Poland"
Ruth Ellen Gruber, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 7 May
www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=16583&intcategoryid=2
or
www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/29210/edition_id/552/format/html/displaystory.html
"Poland Marks 60th Anniversary of Massacre", Vanessa Gera, Associated Press, 4 July 2006
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070400874.html
Pinchas Cytron, ed. "Book of Kielce: History of the Community of Kielce from its Founding until its Destruction" (Poland); ["Sefer Kielce: Toldot Kehilat Kielce MiyoHivsuduh V'ad Churbanah", Tel Aviv], 1957
www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/kielce/kielce.html#TOC
The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland (JHI), under the direction of Professor Feliks Tych, has begun a new project, 'The Aftermath of the Holocaust in Poland, 1944-2005'.
In this project a team of scholars, historians, and journalists will systematically document Jewish life in Poland since the end of the Second World War, including life under Communism and the transition to democracy. The project will be headed by Professor Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Director of Jewish Studies at the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin. This latest venture is undertaken in the spirit of a similar project spearheaded by Emanuel Ringelblum (1900-1944) commonly known as Oneg Shabas, which covered the period 1939-1943. Ringelblum also gathered an interdisciplinary team which systematically documented life in the Warsaw ghetto.
According to the JHI, the current research project will employ a stringent methodology, ensuring historical accuracy. An international body of scholars will review results prior to publication. Scholars from universities in Warsaw, Lublin, Lodz, the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, and the Polish Academy of Sciences will participate in research teams. Publication of the final document, in both English and Polish, is expected in late 2007 or early 2008.
Jewish Historical Institute:
www.jewishinstitute.org.pl/
The new German-born Pope, Benedict XVI, ended his four-day visit to Poland in late May 2006 with a stop at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The Pope visited a number of cities and locations important to Pope John Paul II during his visit, and voiced support for the canonisation of his Polish predecessor. Pope Benedict's visit was heralded as a significant political and spiritual move, extending the efforts made by John Paul II to restore relationships between Christians and Jews, Germans and Poles.
Pope Benedict said mass to roughly one million people in Krakow before making his way to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was his third trip to the Nazi concentration camp, but his first as Pope. As a young man Pope Benedict was himself forced to become a member of a Hitler Youth group and to join the German arm. He personally insisted on visiting the Nazi camps. A number of prayers for peace were said, and the Pope greeted survivors of the camp and raised difficult questions pertaining to faith in face of the horrors of the Holocaust.
While many praised the pope's visit as a significant event, he was also criticized (especially by Jewish leaders) for not decrying anti-Semitism and for not apologising or accepting blame on behalf of the German population for the events of the Holocaust. Many Polish Jews expressed concern that the Pope's visit galvanised right-wing oppositional parties. Those fearing the rise of right-wing politics, associated with Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's far-right Catholic party, cite recent attacks against a Polish rabbi, Michael Schudrich of Warsaw, as evidence of growing anti-Semitism, homophobia, and xenophobia in Poland.
Warsaw's Jewish Historical Institute, the Polish government, and the city of Warsaw say that they expect to begin building work on the long-delayed Museum of the History of Polish Jews in late 2006. Opening would then follow in late 2008 or early 2009. The Museum will cover both positive and negative aspects of the history of Jewish Poland. Organisers of the museum hope the project will help dispel stereotypes and counter the anti-Semitic reputation of Poland by providing a 1,000 year history, extending long before the events of the Holocaust.
The museum will focus primarily on historical information owing to the widespread destruction of Jewish artifacts in Poland during the Holocaust. Its displays will span four different periods: the earliest presence of Jewish populations in Poland (1203); the golden era of the Polish Republic of the 15th and 16th centuries; the period surrounding Polish independence in 1918; through to the situation after the Second World War. The Museum will feature high tech, interactive displays for visitors, including databases covering both current Jewish events in Poland and the tracing of family roots. The museum will also house a large library and will serve as a venue for cultural and academic events.
The museum, to be built on the site of a wartime ghetto, has been mostly greeted with support from within Poland. Some right-wing politicians have voiced criticisms and debate the use of public funds in developing such a museum. Large contributions have been made by the governments of Germany, Poland, and the city of Warsaw to generate the 43 million Euro necessary to complete the museum. Despite past problems in securing funding, organisers expect the museum to be built without serious political resistance. They look forward to a museum which preserves Polish Jewish memory by presenting stories of life as well as death.
Museum of the History of Polish Jews:
www.jewishmuseum.org.pl
Warsaw's Jewish Historical Institute:
www.jewishinstitute.org.pl/
The Jewish Week:
www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=12478
The Warsaw Voice:
www.warsawvoice.pl/
contact us: editor@jewish-heritage-europe.eu
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