RESTORING DIGNITY
Retired teacher helps renovate cemetery desecrated in World War II
Imagine going to visit a loved one at a cemetery only to find the resting place in shambles.
That horror is a reality for thousands of relatives of those buried at the Bagnowka Cemetery in Poland where a retired teacher from East Greenville is spending her week helping to restore dignity to the resting place.
Iva Gardner of East Greenville is one of several volunteers who are currently working on the cemetery in Bialystok, an Eastern Polish city of 300,000 near the Belarus border. There, Gardner is assisting in uncovering, piecing together, resetting and repainting thousands of headstones that were desecrated by the Nazis during the Holocaust in an attempt to erase even the memory of the Jewish people.
The Bialystok Restoration Project was started by Josh and Amy Degen. According to the Bialystok Cemetery Restoration website:
“While touring Bialystok in 2015, Amy and Josh went to the Bagnowka Cemetery and saw the cemetery restoration work being conducted that day. Josh decided that he could make a difference and lift tombstones quicker using heavy equipment. They started a GOFUNDME campaign and return to the Cemetery yearly to help restore it. Since 2015, Amy and Josh have helped coordinate the U.S. volunteers for the Bialystok Cemetery Restoration project which has lifted and reset over 1000 tombstones.”
Amy found personal meaning in the project with the knowledge that her grandparents were among the 2,000 Jews ushered into the Great Synagogue by Nazis and burned alive on June 27, 1941.
In June, 1943, the Nazis entered Bagnowka Cemetery to wipe out any remaining traces of the Jewish community in Bialystok. Over several weeks, the Nazis destroyed, knocked over, and dismantled thousands of headstones and monuments. Monument bases, blocks, obelisks, and pediments were scattered about, according to the project website.
Josh, who also felt a calling to the cemetery, explained that it was a task that needed to be done.
“When I saw this cemetery, I got the the feeling that somebody had to do this work to restore the dignity of the souls that never knew what was going to happen in the Holocaust. The gratitude that we get from seeing someone looking for one of their loved ones, to see their family member’s grave plot again— nothing in my mind and soul could give me more happiness than reuniting someone with their lost relatives,” said Josh Degen in a video interview on the project.
As for Gardner, a retired teacher, she became aware of the project after reading about it in a local paper and realizing she had taught both of Josh and Amy’s daughters. She was eager to get involved with the project knowing only that her own grandparents were from Bialystok.
“I saw it in a local newspaper. Four or five years ago I saw a picture of Josh lifting a stone in the cemetery and it blew my mind because that’s all I knew about my grandparents’ past was that that’s where they were from. I said to Amy, ‘Whatever
I can do. I want to go.’ Last year I saved my money and asked for some family donations and traveled with about 10 other people. We flew into Warsaw, rented cars and drove to Bialystok and the next morning we were at the cemetery.”
And the cemetery, according to Gardner, is a sight to behold. The massive site contains about 35,000 graves, most of which are hidden by grass, shrubbery and debris left over from its destruction. In many cases, headstones are marked with bullet holes or broken and toppled over completely. According to volunteers, as Poland was in the holds of communism, the headstones were sold in pieces to be used for things like creating roads and building foundations. Some were reshaped to use as sharpening tools and for other purposes. Some stones were even used to erect a fountain in the center of town. The fountain has since been removed.
Before World War II, over half the city’s population was Jewish. Now, the city has a zero percent Jewish population.
“It’s a testimony to how enormous the population was. It was only opened in the 1890s so in 50 years there were that many graves. Many acres are still uncovered,” said Gardner.
Volunteers work for eight days trying to uncover as many graves as they can, removing anti-Semitic graffiti, resetting the stones and painting over the engraved memorials with gold paint. Since the project began, around 1,000 stones have been restored.
“It’s delicate and deeply moving work. I’m excited I’m going back. It’s a lot of personal expense but immense satisfaction of a nature that’s different from anything I’ve ever done,” said Gardner. “Kneeling PHOTO COURTESY OF IVA GARDNER on the ground and scrubbing a stone until it reveals the person laying there and whose life is being memorialized by that inscription is unbelievable.”
The group is always looking for volunteers. The group of 10 workers in 2018 increased to 15 for this year’s project.
To volunteer, donate or learn more about the Bialystok Cemetery Restoration Project, visit bialystokcemeteryrestoration.org.