The Dead Don’t Lie

Image by Courtesy Karen Treiger
We visited the dead in Stoczek. The dead don’t lie.
Stoczek is the Shtetl where Esther was born and the place from which Sam was taken to the Death Camp Treblinka. There are enough ghosts here to compete with Hogwarts.
Grzegorz Maleszewski took us to Stoczek. Our first stop was the vacant lot that once was the Kwiatek soda factory. Just to the right of the empty lot stood a pre-war home. This, we were told, was a typical house. I imagine 74 years ago it looked better, but still…

Image by Courtesy Karen Treiger
Then we visited the Christian dead. At the cemetery we paid our respects to Helena and Aleksander Stys, Wladyslawa and Stanislaw Stys, Edward Stys, Elzbieta and Waclaw Maleszewski (Grzegorz’s parents) and others who knew Esther and Sam and were involved in their lives and survival. I was humbled. Would I have had the courage to help when so many others did not. I hope so, but I am blessed to never have been put to this test.

Image by Courtesy Karen Treiger
The Stoczek Christian cemetery is beautifully kept and well-manicured. Colorful flowers adorn the graves. The tombstones are clean and the writing clear. The small red brick chapel in the center stands cheery and solid, with a steeple reaching up to the heaven. The Christian dead told us that they were honored and respected and have been well cared for. Their ghosts are at peace.

Image by Courtesy Karen Treiger
Then we visited the Jewish dead. This was an altogether different experience. The Stoczek Jewish cemetery is no more. No tombstones, no flowers, no chapel. It is overgrown with weeds and littered with garbage. Under the earth – in this place – are the Jews of Stoczek who died before September, 1939, who had the zechus (merit) to be properly buried.

Image by Courtesy Karen Treiger
During and after the war, Poles took Jewish tombstones for building material – to build walls or streets. A number of years ago, the town finally gathered the small number of broken and faded tombstones that remained and placed them next to the cemetery where they had erected a memorial to the murdered Jews.

Image by Courtesy Karen Treiger
Jan Stys, a man full of life at 87, an eyewitness, told us how he was an 11-year old school boy, sitting in his classroom looking out the window. The window looked out over the Jewish cemetery. Jan watched that August day of 1942, as the Nazis shot and killed his Jewish neighbors. He understood that this war was not nice.

Image by Courtesy Karen Treiger
Who knows why some were murdered here and others taken to Treblinka. Perhaps it was the old and disabled who would have had trouble making the trek to the gas chambers. Perhaps it was Nazi sport. No way to know.
The Jewish dead told us that they have been dishonored and abused. Their ghosts are not at peace. They are eternally crying for themselves and for their murdered children and grandchildren.
תנצב”ה -May their souls be bound up in the bond of eternal life.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein, arrested in ‘Qatar-gate,’ says he’s being unfairly prosecuted for his reporting
-
Fast Forward Trump fires national security officials, reportedly at urging of Laura Loomer, far-right Jewish ‘Islamophobe’
-
Fast Forward Display honoring Jewish women graduates of naval academy removed ahead of Hegseth visit
-
Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: מיידעלע געפֿינט 3,800־יאָריקע קמיע לעבן בית־שמש, ישׂראלTIDBITS: Little girl finds 3,800-year old amulet near Beit Shemesh, Israel
אַן עקספּערט פֿון פֿאַרצײַטיקע קמיעות האָט באַשטעטיקט אַז די קמיע איז געלעגן אויפֿן אָרט פֿונעם אַמאָליקן לאַנד כּנען.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.