Inauguration of the 3rd edition of the project ‘The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna’ - cleaning of the necropolis and the memorial site

On Friday, 16.08.2024, a group of volunteers worked on cleaning the Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna.

At the beginning, the new volunteers were trained on the rules of behaviour at Jewish cemeteries, the scope of possible work, and the health and safety standards. At the same time, the participants had the opportunity to hear some historical and cultural trivia about the history of Jews in Poland and about the biblical context of Jewish burials. The training was conducted by Jakub Antosz-Rekucki of the Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation.

Volunteers trimmed the branches, washed the monument, raked the grass that had been cut earlier, collected branches, leaves and rubbish. Hard to believe, as many as 60 bags of waste were collected! In the heat of the afternoon, everyone was in a hurry to make it in time for the start of Shabbat, when - out of respect for Jewish customs - one should not work in the cemetery.

After tidying up the area and washing the matzevot erected in the cemetery for the dozens of Holocaust Victims buried there, the group still prepared the memorial on Pańskie for the upcoming commemoration of the 82nd Anniversary of the Shoah, which the Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation organised this Sunday. The monument and the plaque with the names of the murdered were washed, overhanging branches were cut, and grass, branches and rubbish were raked out. Workers from the Public Utilities Department, who came to the site, picked up another few bags of rubbish. 

After the exhausting work, the group met for a shared meal, topped off with Shabbat challah and the lighting of memorial candles for the murdered former residents of Mszana Dolna.

We express our utmost gratitude to the volunteers from the town and municipality of Mszana Dolna - the youngest, Julka, just seven years old, helped very bravely with the work - and to those who came especially from Krakow, Myślenice and even distant Żelechów!

The clean-up was the inauguration of the 3rd edition of the project ‘The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna’.

‘Subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the programme of the National Heritage Institute - Together for Heritage’.