Jewish community and local Poles 'shocked' at desecration of grave
Unknown vandals defaced local tombstone honoring the memory of 16 Jewish victims of the German occupation of Poland in WW2 on Thursday, shocking the town.
Jewish activists and Polish residents of the town of Karminowice near Lublin were "shocked to discover" on Thursday that unknown vandals defaced a local Jewish tombstone with anti-Jewish slogans, the Rabbinical Commission for Matters of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland reported on Friday.
Alex Schwarz, a longtime activist in the field of Jewish Holocaust memory in Poland, said that “this breaks the hearts of everyone.” Schwarz was involved in a project by Fundacja Zapomniane in which local students took care of the memorial site.
The result of intense historical research by the foundation, the site officially opened in June 2018 in cooperation with the Matzevah Foundation and local Catholic clergymen.
The attack on the memorial site is but the most recent event in a public discourse that Polish society is undertaking, with many seeking to better come to terms with the Jewish heritage of the nation and others who claim Jewish history is being given preferable treatment to Polish history and pain suffered during the years of Nazi occupation.
In May, politician Konrad Berkowicz [Korwin] placed a kippa above the head of Deputy Minister of Sports and Tourism Anna Krupka [PiS] claiming “They [PiS] bow down to Jews,” Berkowicz reportedly said. “They will sell this country for money.”
The incident was aired on a local television channel in Kielce, the Korwin party did not win a seat at the EU Parliament elections.