Children overturn headstones in Jewish cemetery in southwestern Poland

Three children overturn 15 gravestones at the Jewish cemetery in Opole, in southwestern Poland.

Two 13-year-old boys and a 12-year-old girl tell authorities that they did not know what kind of place it is and did not know its history.

Krzysztof Bielawski, founder of a website about Jewish cemeteries, Kirkuty.xip.pl, tells JTA that during World War II the cemetery in Opole was bought by its former gravedigger and member of the Nazi Party who is known only by his last name, Hoffman. In part of the cemetery he arranged to set up a garden. After 1945, a car workshop functioned there.

“Matzevot [gravestones] were gradually stolen. In 1971 there was a man who died crushed by one of the monuments during the dismantling of tombstones,” Bielawski says.

There are a total of about 770 tombstones in various condition at the cemetery in Opole.

The children apologized for their behavior. The family court will now deal with the case.

— JTA