Jewish cemeteries desecrated in Poland

A Jewish burial ground in Poland reportedly has been damaged and another had some headstones defaced with anti-Semitic symbols in two separate incidents.

The alleged damage occurred earlier this week at Wysokie Mazowieckie, a town located 70 miles northeast of Warsaw, the J-Nerations organization, which is involved in the preservation of Jewish burial sites in Poland, says in a statement today. The municipality denied any damage to Jewish burial sites.

At least 10 skeletons “have been extracted without permit or permission for the enlargement of a local bus station,” the statement says. The group’s founder, Meir Bulka, says that bulldozers remained working there even after the mayor promised to halt earthworks on the site, which dates back to the 18^th century.

The construction site was supposed to border on the oldest Jewish burial site of Wysokie Mazowieckie but encroached on the graveyard’s territory, Bulka claims. The graveyard does not have headstones, though fragments of them, including ones with Hebrew letters, are scattered across it. The city has a newer Jewish cemetery that does have headstones, Bulka says.

But Anna Niemyjska, head of the town’s municipal property office, denies this in an email to JTA. “No construction works are carried out in this area,” she says. The municipality had commissioned archaeological works in which “graves were revealed, but as of today, we do not know exactly where the graves are,” she adds.

— JTA