Landowner Wants Polish Town To Remove Monument To Murdered Jews
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — A monument commemorating Jews murdered in a small town in southern Poland during World War II may be removed.
The owner of the land on which the memorial is standing has asked the local government of Chrzanow to remove the monument. It is believed that he wants to sell or lease the land.
In 1942, the Germans murdered seven Jews at the site in Chrzanow as punishment for illegal bread baking. The victims were: Israel Gerstner, Chaim Gerstner, Szymszen Gerstner, Szaja Szpangelet, Fajwel Waloman, Israel Frisz and unknown man from Olkusz.
The mayor of the town informed the Jewish community in nearby Katowice about the request to remove the monument. Members of the Chrzanow town council are now discussing how to commemorate the murders should the monument ultimately be removed, including asking whoever builds on the land to put a memorial plaque on the building which arises in place of the monument.
“Poles also have their memorial places abroad and are fighting for them like lions. Therefore, we should respect such places in our area. People who died there were also Polish people,” said town councilman Kamil Bogusz in an interview with the newspaper Przełom.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
