Sokolow Malopolski, Poland – A neglected Jewish cemetery in southeastern Poland got a much-needed clean-up last week when a dozen non-Jewish Polish villagers banded together to clear debris and rubbish that had accumulated at the site in recent years.
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The burial ground is located in the village of Sokolow Malopolski, which lies some 24 kilometers north of Rzeszow. It dates back to the 18th century and was in use until the local Jewish community was destroyed by the Nazis in World War II.
The initiative was organized by a local civic group, the Sokolow Region Lovers Society, and was carried out in cooperation with the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, which is responsible for safeguarding thousands of Jewish cultural, historical and religious sites throughout the country.
Foundation head Monika Krawczyk said she appreciated the care shown by the Sokolow volunteers, as well as the kindness of their gesture.
“We encourage local Polish groups and individuals to become involved in cemetery conservation as a way of preserving the past and strengthening ties between Poles and Jews for the future,” Krawczyk told The Jerusalem Post. “And it is heartwarming to see how these non-Jewish villagers took time off from their daily lives to uphold the dignity of a Jewish cemetery.”
But she bemoaned the lack of cooperation from Sokolow Malopolski’s municipal authorities, who have repeatedly resisted efforts to forge better relations.
In an incident two years ago, local officials told representatives of Krawczyk’s foundation that they “would not cooperate with Jews” and “do not want our children to learn about Jewish culture”.
Krawczyk also expressed regret that world Jewry is not doing more to take care of Poland’s Jewish sites.
“There are over 1200 neglected Jewish cemeteries throughout Poland,” Krawczyk said, adding that, “with little or no interest coming from Jewish communities abroad to maintain them, we are increasingly forced to rely on the goodwill of local Poles to care for these precious parts of our heritage.”
She noted that the foundation is looking to raise funds to refurbish the cemetery and erect a memorial to the town’s Jewish community, but has had difficulty doing so.
Jews first settled in Sokolow Malopolski more than 300 years ago. At the end of the 19th century, a Jew served as mayor of the town, which was also home to prominent rabbis such as Meilech Weichselbaum and the hassidic rebbe Aba Hippler.
On the eve of the Holocaust, Sokolow Malopolski was home to more than 1,350 Jews, most of whom were murdered by the Germans in the Belzec death camp.
A YouTube clip from last years clean up
Poland is an interesting country. As a general rule, the Polish people hate Jews. But there are so many younger people who feel a responsibility to protect the Jewish heritage because they recognize that our history is so closely entwined with theirs. If our institutions would go to the smaller Polish towns and villages and talk to these peple, I’m sure they would do the same as the villagers in Sokolow. Many askonim have cleaned up and renewed the famous cemetaries but there are hundreds of small ones all over. This may be a sign to try harder.
this is the hamlet in galicia not to be mixed up with the town in poland proper
Beautiful kids. Brings tears to my eyes.
I got very emotional watching this video. It seems there are Polish people out there that are not anti-Semitic and have good intentions. Thanks for this piece.
Thank you Poles!
Time will tell…it’s nice to see the younger generation in Poland making an effort to preserve Jewish culture, I hope they don’t grow up to be like their ancestors. Even in pre-war Poland there was a lot of trouble between Poles and Polish Jews, and there is still a deep-seated bitter anti-semiticism that exists, as you can see from the comments made by the local officials (in the article). It doesn’t surprise me that there is little interest by Jews in the rest of the world in preserving these sites. We remember how Jewish cemeteries were ravaged before and expect it will happen again. My family can’t find my grandmother’s grave, we can only estimate where it might be because the Nazis and Poles took away all the headstones in the cemetery and some mamzerim dug up graves because they thought Jews hid their wealth in these graves.
i was there about 5-6 years back. some peasants who were born right after or during the war came to our car. they were thrilled to see some “authentic” jews who they claimed never to have seen previously. they pressed some apples into our hands as some kind of welcome. they seemed to have been genuinely pleased to meet us.
I think that #6 hasn’t had much contact with pre-WW2 Polish Jews. My shver told me that in Cracow where the NDK was not strong, a yiddish kid couldn’t walk alone for fear that an endeke would beat him up. In Congress Poland between WW1 and WW2 it was terrible. In the town of Sulejow where my father lived, the NDK made a boycott of all jewish stores. My father organized the Jews into a trade guild in order to fight that and it worked until 1939. It was well known that the previous pope was in trouble often with his superiors because of his open warmth towards Jews. A general statement does not mean 100% of Poles but it does mean the large majority.
Didn’t some Jews leave their children with sympathetic Polish neighbors when the parents had to flee or succumb? Maybe some of these kids are actually Jewish.
There is a lot of space between a few and an overwhelming majority. There may be a sizable minority of Poles who don’t like Jews, but I doubt that “the majority” “hate” them. Surveys show that the Polish society is almost evenly split into three groups: one-third declares liking Jews, one-third is neutral and one-third declares dislike. A couple percent are strong, “active” anti-Semites, and a much larger group of people hold (more passively) some believes that may be viewed as anti-Semitic, but I haven’t seen much proof that “the majority” of Poles “hate” Jews.
You can see it in politics. Several prominent Polish politicians have/had Jewish roots and others have reached to Jewish community (apologizing for past massacres, participating in Jewish holidays, etc.). Some Poles support it, some don’t care and some dislike such gestures but it never ruined those politicians’ careers. If hatred was so strong as you think, I believe there would be more of a backlash and politicians would stop doing it to protect their careers.
Very nice we need the poles to clean for us in jewish homes and now the jewish cemetery Reb Mendel Reichberg should live and be well till 120 healthy years
has put up in the last 40 years fences and ohel’s by many many tzaddikim
all by himself i think over 30 cemeteries and has been yelling all these years that most of the cemeteries will soon not be around anymore the poles will take them away and build houses on them why are we waiting for this to happen to all the cemeteries in poland