As I've been working on these posts I've learned a great deal about what was once referred to as the "Jerusalem of Poland," or "Jewish Oxford"--aka Lublin. This city has a ghostly legacy marked here and there with placards explaining its Jewish past.
One of the online sites I visited (The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe) noted that by 1939 Lublin's population was made up of 31%, or 38,000, Jews. This figure has been larger and smaller at different points in its history, but the bottom line is that Jews had a significant presence in Lublin for hundreds of years. As I mentioned in the post on the Yeshiva/Hotel, the Jewish population of the city today is considerably smaller and harder to estimate. YIVO says there were just 50 Jews in Lublin in 2000, but a women we met from Jagiellonian University suggested there might be 120 Jews in the community today. For reasons we can well understand, given what happened during the Holocaust, they are not very public people.
One of the primary objectives of this trip was to tend to a small number of Jewish cemeteries in Poland. The first of the cemeteries we were asked to work on was the so-called "new" cemetery, just a few city blocks from Hotel Ilan (#1 on the map below).
The caretaker of the hotel (and by extension the synagogue which is on the third floor of the hotel) is also the caretaker of the two cemeteries we were assigned. I think it is unfair to label these cemeteries as neglected. This one gentleman has so much to do I think it seems more accurate to suggest that the task of upkeep is overwhelming. Groups like ours can offer minor assistance. If enough groups participate this man's burden is lessened, but only somewhat.
The caretaker loaded up his vehicle with tools and we "geared up" with the gardening gloves, work clothes, tools, bug spray and sunscreen we had been asked to bring. Like a ninny, I forgot gloves, but my colleagues were willing to share.
According to the Virtual Jewish Library, the "new" cemetery on Waleczynch Street, "was established in 1829 and
was seriously damaged during the
Holocaust.
It is still used today by the small Jewish community and has a number
of Holocaust memorials."
The Sara and Manfred Frenkel Foundation financed the renovation of the cemetery, which was completed
in 1991. According to a site called "Virtual Shtetl", "The area was walled in
and a building holding a memorial room
was erected, which is connected with a little synagogue commemorating
its founders."
The Nazis desecrated this cemetery during World War II, using some of the tombstones to form the pathways of the Majdanek extermination camp, just outside the city of Lublin. Surprisingly, one of the headstones remaining was that of famed Rabbi Yehuda Meir Szapiro, the founder of Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin. Although his remains have been moved to Jerusalem, his ohel (a structure built over the graves of Rebbes, prophets and tzadikim) can be seen at this cemetery.
This wall is a fragment from the original cemetery and sits in front of a mass grave of victims of the Nazis.
This monument marks the mass grave of over 100 children from the Lublin Jewish Orphanage on Leczynska Street and residents from the Jewish Shelter for the Elderly murdered by the Nazis on April 24, 1942. In 1947 their remains were re-interned here from the place of their execution.
Our job was focused on a few gravesites.
The goal was to weed the beds and sweep the sidewalks. We managed quite well.
The younger members of our crew trimmed branches and wrestled the slimey snails.
There's something terribly disconcerting about the "pop" of stepping on one of these critters (not that we wanted to).
We worked at the "New" cemetery for less than two hours, and were then taken by mini bus to the "Old" cemetery. This cemetery dates back to the early 16th century and now has the distinction of being the oldest Jewish extant cemetery in Poland and the oldest in situ Jewish gravestone in Poland, the ohel of Talmudic scholar Ya‘akov Kopelman (d. 1541).
One of the most interesting focal points in this cemetery is a small matzeva/gravestone with a unicorn and shot through with a missile.
Between the "old" and the "new", the "old" cemetery looked much the worse for wear.
The caretaker assigned the younger members of our crew (young men ranging in age from 17 to 48) the task of cutting branches and brush. The "elders" among us swept the sidewalk in front of the cemetery.
This stretch of block was what I would gauge to be about four city blocks in the U.S. At the far end was a memorial to the Poles who had been murdered by the Nazis.
A sign nearby says "This place hallowed by the blood of Poles Prisoners of Lublin Castle executed by the Nazis on 23 December 1939."
Thinking about the significance of these sites, one has to recall the Jews who lived in this community dating back to the 14th century. Seven hundred years of Jewish history were all but destroyed. These artifactual wisps located here and there throughout the area underscore both the fragility and the brutality of human existence. Why? Words fail...
No comments:
Post a Comment