Historic Jewish cemetery in Poland vandalized a month after rededication

Graffiti at newly renovated site in Tarnow in southern Poland reads ‘Jews eat children’; official calls incident ‘result of anti-Semitism and deep depravity’

By Katarzyna Markusz 22 July 2019, 11:04 pm

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Vandalism at the newly renovated Jewish cemetery in Tarnow in southern Poland, July 2019. The graffiti reads, 'Jews eat children. Jadowniki eat Jews.' Jadowniki is a nearby village. (Facebook/Natalia Gancarz/via JTA)

WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — A Jewish cemetery in southern Poland was vandalized a month after it was rededicated, following two and a half years of renovations.

“Jews eat children. Jadowniki eat Jews,” was painted on the fence of the cemetery in Tarnow. Jadowniki is a village near Tarnow.

A group of Tarnow residents said Monday that they would paint over the vandalized fence.

Natalia Gancarz of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments of Jewish Culture in Tarnow said the vandalism was a “result of anti-Semitism and deep depravity.”

An abandoned Jewish cemetery in the city of Tarnow, Poland, on April 29, 2014. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

Established in 1581, the cemetery in 1976 was added to the registry of protected monuments.

Upon the cemetery’s reopening in June, Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, praised the cooperation of Tarnow Jews living around the world with local activists.

“This is a sign of how the impossible becomes possible when there is cooperation,” he said.

The renovation cost $800,000 and was paid for by a subsidy from the European Union. It included repairs to the wall and about 100 gravestones, as well as the building of a driveway for the disabled and the installation of lighting. An exhibition about the history of Tarnow Jews was mounted in the pre-burial building.