ON THE JEWISH CEMETERY IN ŁOSICE

by Rafał Zubkowicz, Sarnaki,

Siedlce Life, October 2003,

translated by Jadwiga Budzinski, Winnipeg.

FROM THE WEB EDITOR

Readers whose ancestors died in Poland and who are interested in the restoration of Jewish cemeteries may read our text on this topic published in February 2003 in NEW PUBLICATIONS under the title: 'RESTORATION OF JEWISH CEMETERIES IN POLAND - Exchange of letters compiled by Irena Bellert' (with some relevant attachments). Just click on the arrow to go down a number of pages and you will find this text. The article below describes some of the results achieved in the restoration of the cemetery in Łosice

The big, wooden house is located across from where a church is being built. The thick grass by the entrance to the yard doesn't show any signs that something is hidden under it. In the farther part of the yard everything is turned upside down; few men equipped with spades and wooden stakes are excavating from under thick sod and root stock stone slabs.

Joanna Pawlowska, present owner of the house, was not aware of the history of her yard, although she was born and raised in Losice. Like the majority of young people, she didn't know about the secret the property on Mickiewicz Street was hiding. She discovered that at the time when she returned to her hometown together with her husband and parents and got interested in buying the house. Solid, big, wooden house at the corner of Mickiewicz Street and Kolejowa Street also looked attractive to the Germans. In 1941, just after the attack on the Soviet Union, they ( the Germans ) seized it and turned it into a military police station. Just before that, they ripped apart the pavement in front of the house. The stones were used to build strategic roads in the direction of the Bug River at that time the German-Soviet border. After taking the possession of the house and turning it into military police headquarters, the fieldstones used for paving the roads were replaced with headstones from Jewish cemeteries. According to witnesses, the grave markers were also brought from nearby towns of Sarnaki and Mordy.

Losice, an administrative district town in Podlasie (eastern part of Poland ) presently near the eastern border of province Mazowsze, as many other similar settlements before the war were mainly inhabited by Jews. The first census in the Polish Republic in 1921 states that the population of towns of less than 4,000 people, 70% was Jewish. In August of 1942, Jews from the Losice ghetto, where Jews from Sarnaki were also brought, were driven to Siedlce. From there, freight cars took them on their last journey to Treblinka ( concentration camp ). Such a sinister concept to use the headstones for paving the roads beside the practical side also had a deeper, so to say ideological dimension. The self- conceit coming from very well executed extermination was expressed with each taken step; to trample the memory of gone generations as well. To spit, to trample, each of those acts represented a much deeper meaning.

When after sixty years workers tear out each grave marker from earth's grasp, on the moist undersoil are imprinted Hebrew letters. Paradoxically, fate which met the headstones happened to be a pretty effective form of conservation. The pre-war polychromy (type of dye or stain ) on the tombstones that were in contact with moist soil were very well preserved. The extraordinary nature of the discovery in Losice was all about that the standing headstones had survived decades whipped by wind and scorched by sun, there is not even trace of the rich, vivid colors.

Chagall's ( Russian painter who used vivid colors ) colors on the grave markers bring about amazement. Workers, in the line of duty, became experts in headstone symbolic representation, since there are no more Jewish stone masons. They interpret symbols covering upper parts of the sandstone slabs. The patterns on the grave markers were emphasized by colorful dyes. With heart-felt sorrow, they look at the headstones that were laid right side up, in consequence, the writing and embellishments are almost erased. The most valuable ones look like the headstones placed right side up - the writing and details are barely visible. Those are the oldest grave markers, XVII century, at that time, they say it wasn't customary to embellish headstones with sculpturing.

The headstones are stored at a municipal depot. Some formed a low fence in the garden. While in Losice, I see the slabs being lifted from the ground.

As it turned out there were more grave markers than Viktor Lewin was expecting. It is difficult to estimate the exact number of slabs. A majority of them were broken into smaller pieces just before they were placed in the yard so it would be easier to use them for pavement, writes Lewin, a son of a Jew from Losice living in Canada. The number of grave markers is much higher than it was expected. Because of that it is necessary to revise the design of a monument, which is supposed to be built to commemorate Jews from Losice. Viktor is very astonished and excited by the discovery in Losice. Lately, he suggests that there might be even close to 1500 headstones. Actually the matter is not in the number. The surprise is in their condition and the fantastic, vivid colors of the embellishments from the burial ground in Losice. Those who still remember the pre-war hues of the cemetery, are only a few. Not many Christian children were daring enough at that time to visit the Jewish graves.

A part of the remainder of the grave markers will be used to build a memorial/lapidarium to be placed on the Jewish burial ground in Losice. Because of the much higher number of slabs, the project will be modified. For the time being it is unknown what to do with the excess number of gravestones.