Young and old in cemetery clean-up

Jewish heritage restoration efforts across Poland have attracted an incredible 10,000 volunteers, with most working to clean up pre-war cemeteries.

There are more than 90 Jewish cemeteries across the country and a campaign by groups such as the Coalition of Guardians of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland has attracted volunteers as young as four and as old as 90.

Pre-war Poland was home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, but more than 90 percent were killed during the Holocaust. This sudden decimation left a rich but increasingly untended Jewish cultural heritage, with few Jews left to care for it.

The Coalition said volunteers stepped up “for the sake of building a broader awareness of the multicultural history of Poland”.

Mayors in more than a dozen Polish cities have so far organised clean-ups of Jewish cemeteries and sites, with four such events taking place in Silesia’s capital Katowice. Volunteers at one cemetery in Kraśnik cleared
1.5 tonnes of rubbish.

The newly-established Cultural Heritage Foundation launched an app last year. “When you connect separate actions into a network, it automatically generates new ones of a similar kind,” said Michał Laszczkowski, president of the foundation.

Last year, at Poland’s second largest Jewish cemetery, on Okopowa Street in Warsaw, there were 27 events featuring 600 volunteers clearing leaves and soil.

Before the Second World War, there were around 1,200 Jewish cemeteries in territory covering modern-day Poland, but hundreds were razed or built on while the country was under Nazi or Soviet rule.