Hope among the headstones
Early this week, Warsaw commuters travelling on busy ulica Okopowa will be greeted by a new piece of advertising a giant billboard staring out from the red brick wall of the Jewish cemetery.
The ad is the next installment in the continuing dream of one man, Boleslaw Szenicer.
As director of this 201-year-old cemetery the largest Jewish cemetery in Poland Szenicer has been the driving force behind its preservation, and the billboard is designed to promote his latest project: the planned reconstruction of the cemetery's synagogue, mortuary and office, which were destroyed by the Nazis in 1943.
"Yes, this is my dream," said Szenicer, whose late father was cemetery director before he took over the role in 1980. "I want to rebuild this building. It is an important place for history and for the young people. We want to make it a museum with pictures and information and details we have found from around the (ruins of the original) synagogue."
The building will also be a place where Szenicer, 48, can store his records. In addition to being director and undertaker of this 33-hectare cemetery, Szenicer spends every spare moment noting the information inscribed on each of its 150,000-plus tombstones and crypts. A slightly built but highly driven man, Szenicer has so far logged 52,000 entries records of a culture that was all but wiped out during World War II. Before 1939, more than 3 million Jews lived in Poland. Today, the Jewish population of Warsaw is anywhere from 300-5,000, depending on whose estimates you believe.
"I promised my father I would write down every stone," Szenicer said. "This was my idea. Sometimes I think it's a crazy idea, but I'm writing and writing."
While the cemetery was spared the Nazi bombs, time is slowly destroying the stones and Szenicer's task is a race against time. Some names are lost forever, including those of the victims buried in two large mass graves near the front of the cemetery, casualties of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943.
As a mark of respect, Szenicer and the Jewish Cemetery Foundation "Gesia" are hoping to launch the reconstruction of the old buildings in April next year to commemorate the uprising. It is expected that President Aleksander Kwasniewski will be invited to lay the first cornerstone. As for the rest of the building, work can't begin until the foundation gets some of the estimated $2 million budget the project will require.
The "Gesia" Foundation survives on bequests and donations, and has received just four donations (which are listed on its new web site, www.jewishcem.waw.pl) for its reconstruction project, which commenced last year.
Since the foundation was formed in 1992 to protect the cemetery from further deterioration, it has received around zl. 1 million ($217,000) in donations towards the general upkeep. Small funds are also raised by the sale of zl. 4 tickets to visiting Israeli and American school groups.
Szenicer said the cemetery has also received some assistance from the Polish government, but no financial help from any Jewish organization in Poland. Nor from the Israeli government, which provides no funding to any Jewish organization in Poland because, according to the Israeli Embassy's first officer, Michael Silbelman, the organizations appear to be functioning without their help.
"Money is a big problem," Szenicer said. "We're always talking, talking, talking (with the Jewish community) but nothing ever happens. The Jews that live here and the leaders of the Jewish community of Warsaw have no feeling for the cemetery.
"I feel this cemetery, for me, is very close to my heart. It's like my son, my child. I have to care for it, I have to look after it."
The cemetery, which was registered as a historical monument by Polish authorities in 1973, has been a second home to Szenicer. He spent his childhood here, visiting his father each day after school. As a young man, he gave up his career as a chef to work in this forested haven in the middle of Warsaw. And in the future, he hopes his own 12-year-old son, Szymon, may follow in his footsteps, treading carefully between the crooked and broken rows of stones, continuing the methodical task of noting names and overseeing the restoration of this once-great cemetery.
"In my heart I want to give to my son all of the paper, all of my work," Szenicer said
If you would like to make a donation, you can deposit money at Bank Polska Kasa Opieki
I Oddzial in Warsaw (acc # 12401037-20010133-2700-401112-001-0000). Or send a check to the Jewish Cemetery Foundation "Gesia" at ul. Okopowa 49/51, 01-043 Warsaw. Please specify that the funds are to be used for the synagogue's reconstruction.
