Memory, nature and cult – the place of the Jewish Cemetery in Bródno in the future of Warsaw

Event program

On June 23, 2024, the event "Memory, nature and cult - the place of the Jewish cemetery in the future of Warsaw" took place.

In light of the very unclear future of the Bródno cemetery, the aim of the event was to gather a group of people who could be considered partners in the Jewish community's fight to preserve the entire area of ​​this particular Jewish cemetery - both the constantly threatened historic burial sites and the overgrown and devastated area within it. walls.

The first part of the meeting took place on the premises of the Jewish cemetery itself, where for over 2.5 hours, members of the Jewish community board and cemetery management staff explained all the difficulties they encounter in undertaking the necessary tasks, such as documenting, preserving and commemorating, in maintaining this place - burial places of over 200,000 Jews and over 40,000 tombstones.

After a detailed visit to the cemetery, the group met at the headquarters of our partners in the Prague Cultural Center (a local cultural institution), where there was a long discussion about ideas for somehow preserving both the material heritage and the so-called Fourth Nature - a forest growing over the cemetery, while maintaining the tourist and traditional religious functions of this place. The discussion was a great success as the proposals for cooperation and support were very insightful for the hosts of the meeting and future cooperation was established.

The event was attended by, among others: representatives of the district office, conservators of monuments, as well as the management of two significant Warsaw cultural institutions - the Jewish Historical Institute. Emanuel Ringelblum and the Warsaw Ghetto Museum - both important voices of support in problematic situations regarding Jewish heritage in Poland.