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SAVING JEWISH CEMETERIES IN POLAND:
GENERAL BACKGROUND

For Jews, the care of cemeteries is an essential religious and social responsibility. Even at the height of Jewish emigration from Poland to America, members of the community stayed behind to ensure care for the graves of the dead. Jewish law stipulates that cemeteries must be carefully delimited and protected by fences to prevent desecration.

A recent study of the World Monuments Fund for the United States Commision for the Preservation of America's Heritage abroad has surveyed 1008 Jewish cemetery sites in Poland. The vast majority of these sites are abandoned, without clearly marked boundaries, and subject to natural deterioration, theft, vandalism, and land development. Only 190 cemeteries have walls or fences, and many have been encroached upon for industrial, residential, or recreational use. There is widespread profanation of mortal remains caused by the dumping of garbage, the removal of sand, and the building of houses, offices, warehouses, bus stations, and even stadiums upon hundreds of Jewish cemeteries.

In the last few years there has been a growing number of direct interventions from abroad to protect particular cemeteries. This work is usually funded by Holocaust survivors and descendants of emigrants from the town, including landsmanshaft groups in Israel and the United States. Recent work at dozens of cemeteries includes the erection of memorials, the construction of fences and gates, the clearing of overgrowth, and the cleaning and reerecting of gravestones.

This surge of initiatives has been made possible by the fall of Communism. The possibilities of travel to Poland have facilitated access to the cemeteries, and the political openness makes it easier to develop projects and find people who are ready to help among local Poles from the towns. The advancing age of landsmen and Holocaust survivors is another factor. Many of them want to make sure that the graves of their families and ancestors are protected, feeling that this is a necessary religious, political, and psychological act before their own death. Finally, there is the growing interest in the genealogy and history of the Jews from Poland, which motivates many descendants to save the cemeteries of their ancestral towns.

(abstracted from S. Gruber and P. Myers: SURVEY OF HISTORIC JEWISH MONUMENTS IN POLAND, published in 1995 by the Jewish Heritage Council, World Monuments Fund, and the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad)

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