Letter from Viktor Lewin to the Web Editor

September 21 2002

Shalom,

My name is Viktor Lewin. I am a resident of Winnipeg. My father spent the first twenty one years of his life in the town of Losice, Poland ( east of Warsaw ).

Jews had made Losice their home for the last three hundred and fifty years until the evils of Hitler and Nazism destroyed all of it. Two months in 1942, August and November, marked the end of the Jewish community in Losice.

What remains of the two thousand nine hundred Jewish souls of Losice? What remains is a small group who survived the Holocaust by hiding and/or fleeing. They and their memories !

There is however one very tangible piece of evidence, if you will, of the Jewish spirit, and those are the hundreds of Matzevot which have been lying in the backyard of a residence within the town of Losice. These Matzevot were brought here by the Nazis after Jewish Cemeteries were raided in Losice, Mordy, and Sarnaki, to serve as paving stones for a courtyard at this very residence.

Three sons of fathers who had once lived within a block of each other in Losice have decided that these gravestones have been subjected to disgrace and shame for far too long. These are the gravestones of our ancestors.

With the assistance of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and local authorities we seek to reclaim these Matzevot in order to honour the long history of Jewish life in this area. The goal is to reconstruct the old Jewish Cemetery at it's original site.

Three sons: one in Winnipeg, one in Essex, England, and the third from Paris, France.

Thank you. Peace and health through the New Year.

Regards, Viktor Lewin.

viklevin@shaw.ca

From the Web Editor

I have published this letter in the hope that some of our readers may have an idea of how to help reconstructing the old Jewish cemetery in Losice. Any suggestion concerning an organization or foundation (in Poland or anywhere else) that could support such a project will be welcomed

Irena Bellert