Following on from surveys of Jewish burial sites in a number of Ukrainian regions and across the Baltic States, Lo Tishkach is to expand its survey work into Poland during 2012.
In-depth surveys of Jewish burial sites across the Silesian voivodeship in southern Poland will begin in the Spring.
The surveys in Silesia are a crucial step towards the creation of a complete and reliable database detailing the current state of Jewish cemeteries and mass graves in Poland. Lo Tishkach surveyed the country’s Masovian voivodeship around the region’s capital Warsaw in 2007 but has since concentrated much of its work in Ukraine and the Baltic States.
Silesia holds at least ninety Jewish cemeteries and mass graves. The quality of these sites varies from some which are actively cared for to others that have been turned into parking lots. Led by Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis of the Katowice Jewish Community, groups of volunteers will be trained by Lo Tishkach and survey the sites.
Local volunteers with a keen interest in documenting and preserving Jewish history in the region have drawn up a list of thirty cemeteries and are currently working with other community members and local experts to obtain basic information about the remaining sixty sites.
Jewish settlement in Silesia dates from as early as the XIIth Century and around 50,000 Jews were living in the area before the Second World War. The area has changed hands many times and between the wars was part of Germany before returning to Poland in 1945.
