Submitted by Adam Strom
A Visit to Sierpc
After a beautiful drive northwest of Warsaw, passing by
farms and yellow field in full bloom, our group arrived in Sierpc. As soon as
the bus parked, teachers, students, and facilitators working with the Forum for
Dialogue warmly greeted us. On the way up to the classroom the walls of the
staircase were of decorated with images and quotations from Pope John Paul II
and reproductions of images of Catholic Saints. The hallway on the way to the
classroom displayed well-painted student copies of late 19th and
early 20th century paintings, I believe I saw a Degas and a de Chirico.
Arriving in the classroom, all of us, the guests, found
seats next to students who were unbelievably welcoming. I liked this already.
After a few minutes, three students, two girls and a boy greeted us in Polish
and English. Local media were filming some of the day’s events for the local
news station, but they were hardly in the way. After a few introductory
exercises - including one using an image of flower with overlapping petals that
I may steal for my next workshop-we moved on a lunch. Here again, the work that
went into to our visit was obvious, and a little overwhelming. The dark
photograph from my camera doesn’t capture the spread. As we began to eat, the
headmaster formally welcomed us. It was clear that our visit meant a lot and we
were invited to sign a ceremonial book for guests of the school.
After lunch and a ceremonial photograph, we hit the streets
of the village. Walking downhill, we soon came to a beautiful old wood house
that we learned was the former site of the Jewish Library, which was now a
private residence. As we continued along
we passed a row of low slung houses that Michael Bilewicz, Vice President of
the Forum for Dialogue, and the Coordinator for the Center for Research on
Prejudice at Warsaw University, noted were quite unusual and typical of old
shtetl houses. Further along we stopped at the site of the former fish market,
synagogue, and Rabbi’s house—all with in the former Jewish ghetto. Throughout
the walk, students read from diary entries and memoirs of former Jewish
residents.
A theme, which the students wanted to communicate,
was the efforts of local Poles to stand up for their Jewish neighbors. This was
something that made the students proud. I think they were proud, as well, of
their knowledge, and maybe ever their care and interest in the stories of the
Jewish life of their town. I couldn’t help but wonder, if they didn’t take an
interest, who would. This is not meant as an accusation; looking and seeing a
past that is nearly invisible is difficult. At one point, we stopped to look at
the synagogue. Someone might have even pointed, but there was no sign of the
once dignified wooden synagogue with stained glass windows that once stood on
the site. It burned twice, once before 1907. After the first fire it was
restored. The second time it was burned by Nazis, who shot a Jewish man who was
running to save the building from destruction.
Our walk, with a short interlude on the bus, ended in the
cemetery. The cemetery sat just outside
of the town limits. Michael Och, translated the Hebrew sign, as we walked
through the small field that was once part of the official burial group. As we
walked, one of the students spoke to me conspiratorially. “Young people come to
drink here,” he told me with what sounded like condemnation. Another young man
noted that they had just recently found a piece of another grave stone in town.
He told me this as we passed several dozen broken gravestones, each with Hebrew
lettering. I couldn’t help but think they seemed like stumps, in what had once
been a forrest. The two boys and I settled in the back as the rest of the group
had already gathered to light a memorial candle.
As we left, I was thankful for the students we met and sad
too, or maybe I am sad now. Graveyards are well cared for here in Poland, with bright
flowers sitting atop the graves, although Michal explains that some of them a
fake. Who will care for this one?
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