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"Cohanim Beware!!! Only the opposite sidewalk can be used for walking on this street!!! The sidewalk on this side and part of the roadway have been paved over graves."
A sign I came across demonstrates the tenuous status of Jews in Kazimierz even prior to the war. The signs warn Cohen's, traditionally the priestly class of Jews who are not permitted by Jewish law to enter cemeteries, that the sidewalk and road have been paved over graves. Obviously, it was not only the Germans who were willing to desecrate Jewish graves in the City.
All of the posters were defaced. Things change and also remain the same. |
The Tempel Synagogue, May 2000. Even when virtually all the Jews are gone, graffiti at the Tempel synagogue reads: Juden Raus-Jews go home, along with a Star of David hanging from a gallows.
On the doorway of the Tempel Synagogue, only 2 blocks from my mother's childhood home, someone had painted a Star of David hanging from gallows, with the words; "Juden Raus", "Jews leave" scrawled underneath. It was there that the dichotomy of present Polish attitudes toward Jews played itself out. As I photographed the desecration, a young man stopped nearby. I pretended to photograph the facade of the building and not the graffiti, but I obviously did not fool him. For the first time in Poland, I was frightened. Obviously, anti-Semitism was alive and well to some extent and I did not know this man's intentions. He eased my fears when he said in broken English; " I am Polish and it is bad". It was a relief to know that he meant no harm and that he cared about the feelings of a Jew. |
