Photos

Photos taken during my travels in Eastern Europe in search of family history and stories of spiritual resistance. I am profoundly grateful to my Polish-speaking friends who helped and accompanied me.

WARSAW

Note that the cemetery was not destroyed in the war and served as a hiding place for many people. Currently Jews and non-Jews keep it up. See elaborate crypts of prominent citizens, monuments to Warsaw ghetto residents and to Januscz Korczak and the orphans in his care. While there is evidence of traditional burial in the early years of German occupation, the increasing numbers of daily deaths made traditional care of the body and burial impossible. Unseen in photo is the outline of the pit into which bodies were thrown. Dr. Korczak and orphans are memorialized here, but died at Treblinka. For more information, see: Warsaw Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street.

Gates of Main Jewish cemetery, Warsaw, 2009

In the Ghetto Section of Main Cemetery, Warsaw
Including Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Memorials

Monument to Janusz Korczak
(b. Henryk Goldszmit)

In the Main Cemetery, Warsaw

WARSAW
PRAGA neighborhood

Praga Jewish Cemetery: Praga is a district of Warsaw on the right bank of the Vistula River. This is the oldest cemetery in Warsaw, functioning from 1780-1939 and devastated by Germans in the war. Renovations began in 1985, interrupted by financial and other problems. New gate and a memorial embedded with fragments of matzevot was built, and a pile of matzevot gathered, not yet attended to. Several things to notice in photos: many matzevot are defaced with grafitti, and many are inscribed in Yiddish, not Hebrew. Most are less ornate than those found in the main cemetery across the river on Okopowa Street. It is overgrown and does not seem to be maintained.

Entrance into Praga Cemetery. Note wall of broken matzevot

Praga neighborhood Jewish Cemetery, 2009

Defaced matzevot:

LODZ

Lodz Cemetery - opened 1892, not destroyed in war, now kept up by active Jewish community. There is a monument to the Jews of the Lodz ghetto, which I was unable to photograph.

Photos show entrance to cemetery. The main gate was locked, preventing access. The cemetery is laid out in neat rows, with a map to help locate names and gravesites. Photo inside Pre-Burial house, showing cart and Tahara table, below, taken by Wojciech Szumielewicz.

For more information on the Jewish cemetery in Lodz, see The Jewish Cemetery in Lodz by Miroslaw Zbigniew Wajalski

Lodz Cemetery entrance, 2008

Lodz Cemetery Burial House, Tahara table, 2008

BIALYSTOK

Bialystok Cemetery, Wygoda Street: one remaining cemetery of four Jewish cemeteries. Established in 1890, largely destroyed in the war. You can see some overgrowth and broken matzevot (headstones) as well as the gate and inscription.

Jewish Cemetery gates, Bialystok, 2008

Inscription in English language

HAVANA
Main Jewish Cemetery

Gates of Jewish cemetery, Havana
"House of Life"

Jewish Cemetery, Havana. Santeria figure on grass

Tahara table, Havana, Cuba, 1995

LUBLIN

27 Jewish men and women lived here in 2002. The community, without a minyan of men, chose to close their synagogue and use the space as a museum. Some of these elderly Jews seek minyanim in other areas.

Photos taken by Piotr Plachtanski.

Treasures in Lublin, PL, 2002
(former synagogue)

Beautiful Book, Lublin 2002
(former synagogue)

Zofia Pocilowska-Kann (1920-2019)
May her memory be a blessing

Friend, writer, and sculptress, Roman Catholic survivor of Ravensbruck, a woman of valor. She worked for the Polish resistance and devoted the rest of her life to expressing the suffering of war: "showing the truth about the human, his pursuit of beauty and love." (2008)

A biographical note written by the artist: