Laurie in Poland

rain-shortened work day today

With the exception of the first day all those weeks ago, this was the only time that rain has interrupted a work day. When we arrived, it was just spritzing and a tad cool. We took the opportunity to walk over to a giant statue commemmorating the site that was built some years ago. I'll post a picture of it at some point. It's about 30 feet high (Dan, the volunteer's estimate: "yeah, it's about the height of 3 basketball hoops), made of stone, with images of 5 people carved into it. In the same area are two other, smaller monuments. It's a pretty area, but somewhat spoiled by a Walmart-type store across the street. Such is the price of progress. We all noticed the contradiction of how nicely landscaped this area is, compared with the cemetery. It could be that this area is on land owned by the city.

As we were leaving the area, we all asked ourselves if we wanted to stay today. Two definitely didn't want to, two preferred to stay, and one was on the fence. We agreed that those that wanted to leave were welcome to, as long as they returned the tools to the shed so those of us who stayed wouldn't have to carry extra ones. Turned out, we all ended up going to the work site, where we stood under a tree for a few minutes while the spritz turned to rain.

The rain turned back to spritz and we continued our work, which has changed in the last week. It's become clear to us, talking with a rabbi and other officials, that Jewish law prohibits digging in a cemetery, or at least we think this is the case. So, to be on the safe side, we are only looking for stones that are apparent (or semi apparent) and cleaning around them. This has limited the new work we can do dramatically, but we want to observe Jewish law at all costs.

The rain finally got the better of us immediately after lunch, so we left about 12:45 or so. I stopped at a fascinating, if tiny museum that serves as a memory to the work of a non-Jewish pharmacist named Tadeusz Pankiewicz (rhyming with Mankiewicz for all you baseball fans). The museum is just a few blocks from where we're staying, which if you recall, was situated in the ghetto during the war. The pharmacy he owned was also in the ghetto. The Nazis told him he could go work at a pharmacy outside the ghetto, but I guess he delayed his answer so long that the Nazis rescinded the offer. Turns out the pharmacy became a place where Jews could gather, were given free drugs, medical advice, food, and shelter. Some Jews were even hidden there during some of the transports (sweeps) of people out of the ghetto to Auschwitz or one of the other concentration camps. For his bravery, he was awarded in 1983 the title "Righteous Among the Nations," which was given to non-Jews who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust. This is the same title given to Oskar Schindler. Personally, the most interesting part of the museum was its emphasis on Plaszow. I saw numerous still photos and video of the camp, along with some additional photos on a web display the museum has put together. It stll doesn't help me place where the cemetery was/is in relation to the rest of the camp, but it was very moving to see all this documentation.

As an aside, both Roman Polanski and Steven Spielberg have donated to the museum. I can't tell if the museum has a website, but see
http://www.pjonline.com/Editorial/20050122/comment/lett08.html#1. Pankiewicz wrote a book called "The Cracow Ghetto pharmacy," which is held in libraries all over the country.

posted by Laurie Sabol @ 7/06/2005 04:01:00 PM