In the past, a big Jewish cemetery in Belarus was covered with pavement to build a sports ground. The tombstones from the cemetery were taken and used to make roads and buildings.
Many years later, the damaged stone slabs started to appear while repairs were being done. Now, because of the efforts of a charity in Belarus and the United Kingdom, the headstones will be treated with the respect they deserve as part of a new memorial on the site.
The spooky building will be built where the old cemetery used to be in Brest. It will be made from pieces of tombstones that have been found in the city and nearby over the last 20 years.
Brest, also called Brest-Litovsk, was a place where many Jewish people lived before World War II. They started living there in the 14th century. Before the war, more than 20,000 Jewish people lived there. After the Holocaust, Yad Vashem, the national Holocaust memorial center in Israel, says that only around 10 people were still alive.
It is thought that a lot of people were buried in the cemetery, including important rabbis and scholars. However, it is hard to find proof that their graves were actually there.
During the war, the Nazis started ruining the cemetery by selling the headstones. The Soviets destroyed the religious markers and used them for paving slabs and building works after the war. Later, they covered the entire site with asphalt to make a running track and football stadium, as stated by representatives of the Jewish community in Belarus today. The sports facilities are old and in bad condition, but they are still there and anyone can use them.
All signs of the big cemetery were gone until the late 1990s, when some broken stones started to show up during construction in and around the city.
Debra Brunner, the CEO and co-founder of The Together Plan, a charity leading the memorial project, said that there is currently no evidence to indicate that it is a cemetery.
In the last few years, many headstones called matzevot were gathered and kept in a large building. They were recorded and photographed and then added to a database that can be easily searched. They will now be included in a big memorial at the location.
Artur Livshyts, a co-director of The Together Plan, which works with the Jewish Tapestry Project in the US, said that they have found 1,287 pieces with writing on them. They believe there are probably between 2,000 and 2,500 more pieces that do not have any writing.
Earlier this year, Livshyts, who is one of around 20,000 Jewish people living in Minsk, Belarus, received a message from a young couple. The couple had recently purchased a very old and broken-down house in Brest, which had been empty for more than 20 years.
Brunner said that even though the thing was in really bad shape, they still bought it with the intention of fixing it up. While they were doing construction, they found out that the basement was made of matzevot. After the war, the family living in this house had used the matzevot as materials to build with.
After the family experienced a lot of bad luck, people believed that it was caused by some kind of curse related to the headstones, according to Brunner.
“When this new couple found the gravestones, they felt like they should do the right thing and got in touch with the Jewish community in Brest to ask for guidance on what to do. ”
Brunner and Livshyts want to build a memorial by the end of 2024. The memorial is meant to remember the community that was killed and to teach people about Brest’s Jewish community today.
The memorial will be placed on a corner of the area, far from the sports facilities. The place will have a black stone plaque with words in English, Russian, and Hebrew. The area around it will have trees, grass, and wild flowers. The Brest government likes the idea and promised to take care of it once it’s open, as stated by The Together Plan.
The mayor of Brest’s office has not replied to CNN’s request for a comment on the project. Belarus, led by President Alexander Lukashenko, is facing criticism from the international community for its involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine and its suppression of civil society.
The charity thinks it needs to collect about $325,000 for the memorial. They have already received a promise of one-third of the amount from a donor named Stephen Grynberg, who has a strong connection to Brest’s Jewish history.
Grynberg’s dad, Jack, was one of the few Jewish people in Brest who survived the Holocaust. The person making movies from Los Angeles told CNN that many of his family members were killed by the Nazis.
In the 1990s, Grynberg had a job as an interviewer for the Shoah Foundation. This project was started by famous Hollywood director Steven Spielberg and its purpose was to collect and record the stories of people who had survived the Holocaust. He saw the good things it did and convinced his dad to talk about his experiences in the war. They went back to Brest together.
“That trip meant a lot to me,” Grynberg, who is 60 years old, said to CNN. I found out that there were 70 to 100 family members in this town, and unfortunately, they all died. Dad’s grandparents on mom’s side, dad’s grandparents on dad’s side, dad’s brothers, dad’s sisters, dad’s relatives. His entire family, except for his immediate family, was killed.
He said, “In 1997, there were no indications of a cemetery. ” We were brought to that place, and our guide told us that it used to be a cemetery. The Holocaust is very difficult to comprehend, and it evokes strong emotions that are hard to explain. I was just thinking about the concept of them destroying a cemetery and constructing something on it. I felt really empty.
In 2015, Grynberg went back to Brest. While he was there, he found out that headstones were being found again when buildings were being made. He also met with Brunner and Livshyts.
Grynberg asked designer Brad Goldberg, who had a close relationship with Grynberg’s father, to create a plan for the memorial at the old cemetery.
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think any of my family members are buried in this cemetery because my relatives moved to Brest,” said Grynberg. He mentioned that his grandparents had relocated to Brest, so it’s probable that his ancestors were buried in a different part of Belarus. These are all the people who were buried there before the war. It feels like I am more connected to this town.
He said that the purpose is not to make a copy of a cemetery, but to give respect to the people who are buried there.
Goldberg explained in a phone interview with CNN that his design includes two big curved shapes surrounding a big area on the land. This area will showcase some of the damaged stones.
“He said he calls it a hug. ” This hug is meant to hold the headstones that are still in one piece.
“It’s not a graveyard,” he said. They are all looking in different ways, as if they are talking to each other.
“We spoke to a rabbi who said it’s more about life than death. ”
Livshyts informed CNN that the stones will be put to rest in their rightful place. I call it fair treatment based on past events.
He said that although the actual bodies cannot be found, they can at least bring back the stones and place them where the cemetery used to be.