Poles work with Israelis to restore Jewish past

Amiram Barket

Haaretz.com
May 5, 2005

More than 22,000 Israeli teenagers took part in Holocaust remembrance trips to Poland last year, an all-time record. Participation in delegations to Poland under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces has also soared, from two delegations in 2001 to 15 this year. But alongside the standard visits to death camps, a growing number of Israelis, second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors, are involved in a more independent and profound manner with restoring Poland's Jewish past.

Last August, Menachem Bornstein, 81, revisited his birthplace of Szczekociny in central Poland. Before the Holocaust, the town had a population of around 5,000, half of them Jews. Only several dozen Jews returned there after the Holocaust. Bornstein, whose entire family was wiped out, came to Israel after the war. He hesitated for years before agreeing to return to his hometown, accompanied by his son, Yossi, a 47-year-old businessman.

The visit left deeply disturbing impressions on both: Public restrooms had been erected in the middle of the ancient Jewish cemetery and a shopping center had been put up inside the opulent synagogue. Numerous headstones had been pilfered from the cemetery and used for pathways in private gardens.

The younger Bornstein decided upon returning to Israel to devote his free time to the restoration of Szczekociny's Jewish past. Since then he has devoted several hours a week to the cause. With help from the World Jewish Congress, he appealed to the Polish president and other dignitaries to help rehabilitate the local Jewish cemetery.

He is currently organizing a delegation to Szczekociny this summer of former townspeople, their children and grandchildren.

Bornstein hopes his activity will be a bridge between Jews and Poles. "My father, like many other survivors, has bad memories of the Poles, but I think our activity can bridge the huge chasm between the peoples. I believe the Poles will be persuaded this is something positive that will help to correct the distortion which, perhaps, exists in their attitude to Jews."

Bornstein's story may sound remarkable, but it's not singular. Former residents of Rozahn who now live in Israel and the United States have in recent years invested time and money in the preservation of the town's Jewish cemetery. They purchased the cemetery land, fenced it in and erected a monument in memory of Holocaust victims. The memorial was unveiled this year in the presence of a delegation of dozens of former townspeople.

That project would not have been possible without the willing cooperation of local Poles.

A museum in Chelm

Former residents of Chelm, perhaps the most famous town in Jewish folklore, are trying to buy the building that housed the yeshiva study hall from a local entrepreneur, to turn it into a museum.

"Every time we come on a visit to Chelm, we are accorded an official ceremonial welcome from the mayor, including an exchange of gifts," says Benzion Lefkovitz, of the association of former Chelm residents in Israel. Two years ago, the mayor of Wodz approached former residents living in Israel about getting involved in a major project to preserve Jewish sites there. Productive relations have flourished since then between the two sides.

Israeli schools have also begun recently to take part in the preservation of Jewish cemeteries. One of the schools most involved is the Reut school in Jerusalem. The school decided three years ago to devote two days of each Poland trip to restoring cemeteries, together with teenagers from Poland and Germany. The school's principal, Dr. Aryeh Geiger, says the joint activity has helped subdue tension surrounding sensitive historic issues that might have erupted in an ordinary face-to-face meeting. The preservation project has also led students to discover for themselves Poland's Jewish past.

"In contrast to visiting a death camp, when a student cleans a tombstone with his own hands he connects with the personal story behind it and feels that he has done something to preserve the memory of that person," Geiger said.

After the school's first trip, a group of 23 students and graduates decided to return to Poland for two weeks over the summer to restore a Jewish cemetery. Some 60 students and graduates are planning to go on the next trip this summer.

Another school, the AMIT religious girls' school in Be'er Sheva, this year sent a first group of students to restore a Jewish cemetery. Principal Michael Benson says the project was "without a doubt the most powerful experience the girls encountered on the trip to Poland."

A number of organizations have already recognized the potential inherent in the renewed interest in Poland's Jewish past. The World Jewish Congress is sponsoring a project to restore and document the mammoth Jewish cemetery in Warsaw, employing young Jews from Israel and the Diaspora.

Peleg Reshef, chairman of the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), says the object is to create within five years an online database containing photographs, maps and data on the 200,000 people buried there.

Meir Shilo of the Yad Lezahava memorial museum in Kedumim, made a similar proposal to the Education Ministry. Shilo says there are some 12,000 Jewish cemeteries in Poland, of which only about 700 are registered. "If every student who goes to Poland were to document a single tombstone, it would be possible to do a great deal to preserve Poland's magnificent Jewish past."