Explorations: family history, Poland: yesterday and today

A trashed cemetery: Zambrow

Among our stops in my grandfather’s ancestral home town of Zambrow was the Jewish cemetery. I knew I would not find any graves of my ancestors as the cemetery has already been digitized, and no names of my ancestors appeared. I learned from my aunt, the last living connection I have between my generation and my grandfather’s generation, that only my great grandmother was from Zambrow; my great grandfather was from Lomza and he moved to Zambrow after marrying her. Her last name was Cohen, a common last name, so even if we saw a marker with the name of Cohen, there was little chance I was related to him or her. Moreover, most Jewish markers do not list the person’s family name, only their given name. In any event, my great grandfather came to America before the war and those who did not were killed and their bodies either burned at a death camp or buried in a mass grave.

It is not easy to find the cemetery as there is substantial fence around it. As we entered, we saw a plaque on a rock, This plaque was erected recently at the initiative of the Matzevah Foundation. (http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/cms/news/2709,a-memorial-plaque-in-the-jewish-cemetery-in-zambrow/

 

(The plaque incorrectly states that the “remaining Jews of Zambrow were transported to and murdered by the Germans in Treblinka,” as my research indicates that Auschwitz was their murder site, although some of Zambrow’s Jews may have been killed at Treblinka as well. (See http://zambrow.blogspot.co.il/2015/02/auschwitz-or-treblinka.html)
The Matzevah Foundation is a Christian organization that helps to restore Jewish cemeteries in Poland. I and the other board members had met with its founder, Steven Reece, a few years ago, and were impressed by his sincerity and efforts at Jewish-Christian reconciliation and cooperation. Their website is at http://www.matzevah.org/.
I had read that the organization had done some work at the Zambrow cemetery, which apparently is one of the more intact ones in Poland. (See http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/cms/news/3472,us-volunteers-will-restore-a-jewish-cemetery-in-zambrow/)

However, what I found was very sad and disturbing. The place looked more like a park than a cemetery. It was overgrown, with trees and shrubs growing all about.

There was garbage strewn around, empty bottles, cups beer cans, wrappers.

Some people had recently had a campfire next to some of the markers and probably used the gravestones to sit on.

Most of the gravestones either lay on the ground or were broken, or both.

 

This is the gravestone that was in the best condition:

I was disgusted by the site, but I tried my best to keep in mind that this is what happens to any object that belongs to a community when that community no longer exists. First of all, the place exists, which cannot be said for other Jewish cemeteries. My guide also explained that no efforts were made by the communist government of Poland, from after the war until 1991, to preserve artifacts of any national community because it ran counter to the communist narrative that denied the particularity of groups within Poland. For example, you will not find any memorials to Jews that were erected during the communist era that refer to Jews as Jews, only as Polish people of Jewish origin. Museums were not allowed to have a separate room devoted to the Jews of Poland. This holds true for the communist-era museum at Auschwitz as well as individual memorials at various sites. Thus, many Jewish cemeteries not destroyed by the Nazis were damaged or destroyed by Poles during the post-war era as the government did nothing and no one was around to protect them. In fact, the communists had a policy of erasing the memory of non Polish sites (Jewish as well as sites of former German Poles who were deported from Poland to Germany after the war). Protecting Jewish sites during the communist era was a local decision, rather than, as now, national policy. Of course, it is clear that the local Zembrovers of today treat this place as nothing more than a hang out (it didn’t look like there was that much to do in Zambrow) than a place of historical import.

I wanted to put a stone on one of the gravestones, but I could not even find one among the brush. I had to walk back to the entrance and then back to the gravestone to at least leave a sign that someone had been there to pay their respects.

Can something be done to restore the dignity of this site? Is there a will, and, just as importantly, the means to do so? With all the needs of the Jewish community, in Israel, in America, and around the world, is it even worthwhile for Jews to put their resources into restoring the legacy of Polish Jewry as opposed to the needs of living Jews?

I could not even shed tears as I left the cemetery for the city center look for where my grandfather grew up. I felt sad, depressed and upset, and all together numb.

5 Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing your post regarding the situation in the Zambrów Jewish cemetery.

    It is very saddening to see what can happen within the period of a year. We began work in cleaning the cemetery in 2012 and finished our clean-up of the cemetery in August 2014. At that time the cemetery was documented by the Foundation for the Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland. You may find the entries here: http://cemetery.jewish.org.pl/list/c_62

    When we left the cemetery of course there was no trash, debris, evidence of campfires, etc. I am sorry that this has happened. These developments only reinforce the need for a more permanent solution to protect the sanctity and integrity of the cemetery.

    We continue to work with the Jewish diaspora to raise funds to build a wall. We also continue to work with the city and local residents to develop a sense of custodial ownership to maintain and care for the cemetery.

    Our task is not complete in Zambrów.

    Respectfully,

    Steven D. Reece
    President
    The Matzevah Foundation
    Atlanta, GA, USA

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