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Ukraine: Mass Grave Discovered – Spain:Extremadura Cemetery Restored, Sagunto Cemetery To Become Open Air Museum –Austria: Parliament Postpones Cemetery Decision – Germany: Cemetery Restoration Exhibition, Jewish Cemeteries Vandalised –Poland: Cemetery Vandalised – Belarus:Monument to Bogdanivka Holocaust Victims |
World War II Jewish Mass Grave Discovered in Ukraine
31 March 2009 – A mass grave of 200 Jews was recently located in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod. Historical documents dating back several decades enabled Rabbi Mendel Teichman of Uzhhorod to identify the site at which 200 Jews were killed by the Nazis in World War II. Before the war, the city had been part of Hungary and known as Ungvar. Read the original JTA article.
Restoration of Extremadura Jewish Cemetery
31 March 2009 – The Jewish cemetery of the Spanish city of Plasencia is currently being restored. Restoration of the burial ground will include clean-up and signposting, as well as facilitating access to the site. One of the particular features of the 14th-century cemetery are its anthropomorphic graves caved into rocks. The region in which the cemetery is located is applying for UNESCO World Heritage status. Read the original article (in Spanish).
Sagunto Jewish Cemetery To Become Open Air Museum
29 March 2009 – The Spanish town of Sagunto will feature the country’s first Jewish cemetery to function as an open air museum by the end of the year. Located near the city’s castle, the 14th-century cemetery is currently being equipped with signs that will provide information about the history of Sagunto’s former Jewish community, which in the 15th century had approximately 700 members. Read the original article (in Spanish).
Austrian Parliament Postpones Decision on Jewish Cemeteries
25 March 2009 – After a renewed attempt by the Austrian Green Party to find a solution to the preservation of the country’s Jewish cemeteries, the Parliament has once again delayed its decision. In the 2001 Washington Agreement with the United States, the country committed itself to the preservation and protection of its Jewish cemeteries, but the federal government and regional authorities have yet to agree on the financial details of maintaining these sites. Read the original article (in German).
Exhibition Features Techniques of Cemetery Restoration
23 March 2009 – The authorities of the German city of Worms are currently organising an exhibition on the techniques involved in restoring cultural heritage sites, including the city’s Jewish cemetery. The exhibition at the ‘Rashi House’, which also hosts the city’s Jewish museum, was inaugurated 27 March. For more information (in German), click here.
Two Jewish Cemeteries Vandalised in Germany
23 March 2009 – Four gravestones in the Meiningen Jewish cemetery have been toppled. The police have launched an investigation. Read the original article (in German).
18 March 2009 – In the city of Storkow, the Menorah featuring in the gate of the local Jewish cemetery has been vandalised. The police have launched an investigation. Read the original article (in German).
Two Vandals Sentenced to Prison Term
20 March 2009 – In the German city of Wittstock, two men were sentenced to respectively one year and ten months in prison for vandalism of Jewish property. In June 2008, they had vandalised a Holocaust memorial. Two months later, one of them also toppled four gravestones in the Perleberg Jewish cemetery. Read the original article (in German).
Jewish Cemetery Vandalised in Poland
17 March 2009 – In Chrzanow Jewish cemetery, unknown perpetrators damaged 50 gravestones. A police investigation is underway; it is estimated that the necessary repairs may cost as much as 75,000 zlotys.Read the original article.
Gravestones in Mönchengladbach Jewish Cemetery Conserved
17 March 2009 – 65 gravestones of the Wickrath Jewish cemetery in the German city of Mönchengladbach are currently receiving special care. Over the course of six weeks, two stonemasons will rid the stones of detrimental humidity and protect them from further decay. These conservation efforts are financed by municipal and regional authorities and are taking place after the restoration of the cemetery’s walls (see Lo Tishkach Cemetery Watch January 2009). Read the original article (in German).
Belarusian Builds Monument to Holocaust Victims
17 March 2009 – Nikolai Ilyuchik of Belarus has built a memorial to six men shot near the town of Bogdanovka during the Holocaust. Defying municipal threats, Ilyuchik erected the monument from metal and concrete in his own yard, from where his sons built a path to the site of the killing, about a kilometre away. Lacking historical records, he questioned elderly villagers and found out some information on the victims’ identity, whose families were deported to a ghetto. 800,000 Belarusian Jews lost their lives during the war, many of them in mass shootings. Most memorials do not denote the Jewish identity of the victims. Read the original article.
