Skwierzyna The road to passage Kostrzyn crimped border to the west, sat like a string, tracked down the horizon and hammered in the Forest Rzepińska. Forest went on for miles, and the monotony was broken only by pine forest forest parks. Blue road signs appear regularly, and at a few kilometers from the side windows odgarniały, like rugs, wooden curtain. At the moment there were hewn from the trunks of benches and tables surrounded by a fence of boards, rubbish strewn around the gleaming colored foil bags. After a while, empty parking lots and the wall of the forest disappeared again stuck to the window.
Roads intersect lineal simple as most wooded complexes in the country. Asphalt drags for miles through woods, wild animals providing shelter and wysypiskom garbage. There are places in Poland, less accessible and more savage, but they remain because they lie far from roads. Meanwhile, the "wild" west of Polish lead set by the Germans tracts on which there is little traffic. Along the way, lack of human habitations, and if it even appears in a hamlet, blends into the surroundings and does not distract the driver. The Krosno Oder border crossing in Gubinek is over 40 kilometers. The only settlement on the way for a disguise assumed name Brzózka.
Krzeszyce separated from Schwerin 30 km of the forest. Just before the village appeared on the sidelines of the hallmarks; BMW station wagon at Berlin-registration numbers. A few steps from the road, surrounded by the end of the fence, stumps protruded pedestals and plates smashed tombstones. After circling the old Jewish cemetery bearded man with sticks in both hands, resembling skewers for grilling sausages. Come into sharp spiers smoothly into the ground. When the lancet strikes the stone grinding noise was coming from under the feet. A boulder appears in contact with iron in a different sound than hewn sandstone.
Eckehart Ruthenberg specifies the size of the stone. Gasping with the effort, hoe removes roots and clumps of grass. Tombstone in Krzeszycach was thrown down many years after the war, and lies a few centimeters beneath the forest litter. Cemeteries destroyed by the Nazis, covers twice as thick mantle of soil. But such graves in the Polish-German border is not met. Eckehart obmiata kneels and carefully record brush. From the sands appear German inscriptions: "Here rests in peace Martin Borck, born. 1827, as amended. 1901 ". Constructed by it tries to turn the lever on the other side of the stone, set out in Hebrew. Since the mid-nineteenth century Jewish tombstones in Prussia had to be bilingual. - "Similar devices used by the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids" - says Eckehart and all your weight hangs on the lever.
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| Eckehart Ruthenberg |
lot of effort it cost him to find the cemetery in Krzeszycach (District Gorzów). It ignored the pre-war maps. Searched in vain for the faded pages of barely visible symbols "L", contracting the tree. Prussian cartographers, in accordance with the Hebrew tradition, marked the Jewish burial site, the first letter of the word "Lebenhaus" - "house of life." Also irreplaceable " Kommunales Auskunftsbuch" - the village census of 1914, taking into account religion residents did not mention a word about the Jews in Krzeszycach. On Sunday morning Eckehart stood so before the church and outgoing with the mass people to show a card with the inscription in Polish: "Looking for and deal with Jewish cemeteries in Poland. Can I do you please tell me whether, in this village there is a Jewish cemetery? ". In Dobiegniewo Lipiany and parishioners helped him find work. In Krzeszycach spread out his hands helplessly. Eckehart went to the local pub and sat at a table as long as the evening an elderly man recalled childhood and the graves in the forest. Were to be the way to the Schwerin, about two kilometers outside the village.
Jewish traces of 66-year-old Ruthenberg looking for a quarter century. He started in the first half of the eighties, when the GDR authorities barred him from organizing exhibitions and selling art. Graduate School of Arts in East Berlin, lost his job but gained a lot of free time. - "With boredom, I started searching for cemeteries" - who says half in jest. But the real reason was, in fact, different: the rebellion against his father, who during the Nazi period dealt with eugenics, and during the Second World War could take participated in the genocide of the Jews.
The year was 1992. Dr. Martin Ruthenberg died and the family had to clean up his office in the institutions of Plant Breeding at the University of Humboldt in Berlin. Reviewing the papers, Eckehart stumbled upon a letter sent by his father to his wife from the eastern front. "Liebe Heilwieg" - began with the correspondence, written on Mar. 19, 1942 at Nowomoskowsku. "The last three days were so terrible that I do not want to write about it." Eckehart decided to find out what events such still very shocked father.
At Date 19 March 1942, Simon Wiesenthal has noted in his chronicle of extermination [1] : "The Nazis spent 400 Jews in the Russian Republic Novomoskovsk Councils and shot them on the gravel pit near the city, across the river from Samara. " The massacres at Babi Yar, near Kiev, where in two days, shot with a machine gun 33,000 Jews, the massacre of Novomoskovsk gone unnoticed. To quickly and efficiently carry out the extermination, SS benefited with the help of soldiers of the Wehrmacht. Is among the criminals Novomoskovsk was Sergeant Martin Ruthenberg?
Seven years Eckehart studied archival documents but was not able to confirm the father's participation in the extermination of Jewish civilians. "I discovered the horrible facts from the prewar period, of which the family had no idea"-he confesses Eckahart. None of the relatives did not know that Martin dealt with the nature studies at the University of Greifswald biology of race (Rassenbiologie). In his spare time, as a member of student militia SA Communist rozganiał mass production, and during the course worked on the construction of "pure German blood." His efforts saw professors, taking Martin in their academic ranks. Obtained thanks to unlimited access to the laboratories where experiments were carried out on humans. Wrote a doctoral thesis on the inheritance of traits, but the outbreak of war put an end to a brilliantly promising career in science.
Junior went to the doctor responsible for transport, the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK). Traveled through Poland and Ukraine, and a few weeks after writing a letter to the Novomoskovsk was dismissed from the eastern front. When his colleagues started their six-month siege of Stalingrad, Martin wertował documents in Riga. Behind the desk of the Office for the District of Breed Kleistenhof him sat a colleague from the University of Greifswald. Kompanowi spared former Stalingrad hell and allowed to deal with this, what Dr. Ruthenberg knew quite well: the Germans of Latvian assignment to a category nationality. At the end of 1942, Martin went to Greifswald on holiday. Nine months later, was born Eckehart.
from the children's father demanded discipline and unquestioning obedience. Eckehart remembers the constant bickering. He could not accept the strict rules and principles of education, and finally my father threw him out of the house. He was 21 years old and over the next four decades, the death of Martin, has not maintained any contact with his father. - "Looking for cemeteries is an indirect expression of rebellion against his father, utożsamianemu by me from an authoritarian state "- says Eckehart.
from the children's father demanded discipline and unquestioning obedience. Eckehart remembers the constant bickering. He could not accept the strict rules and principles of education, and finally my father threw him out of the house. He was 21 years old and over the next four decades, the death of Martin, has not maintained any contact with his father. - "Looking for cemeteries is an indirect expression of rebellion against his father, utożsamianemu by me from an authoritarian state "- says Eckehart.
Eckehart In 2006 he decided to move to the other side of the Oder-Neisse line. He began Cedynia, the Polish town closest to Berlin. On zapuszczonym cemetery discovered six tombs. Then he went to Trzcińska Zdroj and found more gravestones. Next were Moryń, Debno, Boleszkowice, a total of 12 border village. Shortly before the appearance of a German in Chojna, a local newspaper described the fate of the Jewish cemetery: "Ok. 1973, or 1974 municipal workers removed all the tombstones, bulldozer torn residues of scattering on the occasion throughout the coffins and bones. In subsequent years there were pastured pigs and cows. (...) Now there is an empty meadow, where, until recently, children played soccer. " For three months, toured Lubuskie. He discovered dozens of stone tombstones, of which 20 in Torzym. Carrying the boards reflected on his health. On the way back to the house collapsed and was taken to hospital. Since then, more often makes a break and eats regular meals. Only the night in the car did not give up, sharing bed with nakłuwaczami, lever for lifting stones and meter in height.
"There was once a graveyard" - said Andrzej Kirmiel and shows the bypass Miedzyrzecze. - "The road runs through the middle of the cemetery hill." Kirmiel, historian, author of Lubuska Judaica Foundation for several years examining the past of the Jews in the former German territories. On his initiative, Polish and German high school students systematically organized Cemetery in Schwerin- currently the largest Jewish burial site in north-west. He says he is going Miedzyrzecki cemetery are significant in the remaining 600 Jewish burial places, ravaged by the Poles.
Immediately after the war, at the expense of the cemetery, the road was extended to the district Schwerin. Workers used the tombstones as a primer under the pouring asphalt. On the occasion of the works were discovered deposits of gravel, which at first illegally, then officially completely exploited. The sand with gravel piled up in the communal effort beach on a nearby lake Deep. - "The bones were placed in the gravel, which were already collected and exported," - said the historian one of the witnesses. The marbles and granites supplied the stone gravel plants. Kirmiel even found a price list established by the municipality, "former German 'tombstones. Locals on their own carted the stones that have used to build sidewalks or foundations on private estates. In January 1970 the minister of municipal cemetery set aside under the "implementation of the national economic plans, thus ending his siedemsetletnią history.
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| Pilgrims Cemetery in Slubice |
Most cemeteries border ceased to exist in the late sixties and seventies.
- "Paradoxically, the thaw in Polish-German relations was the main reason for the liquidation of pre-war burial sites" - says Andrew Kirmiel. The communist authorities and East Germany signed a non-visa regime for Polish and Tourists began arriving from beyond the Oder. "unsatisfactory state of cemeteries and their appearance is of an extremely sensitive surface and cause unnecessary and hostile, but just remarks from the tourists" - drew attention to the Provincial Association of Public Utilities and Housing in Zielona Gora. the district authorities have decided definitively resolve the question of all "post-German" cemeteries. Thousands of Catholic Protestant and Jewish places of remembrance razed to the ground.
- "Paradoxically, the thaw in Polish-German relations was the main reason for the liquidation of pre-war burial sites" - says Andrew Kirmiel. The communist authorities and East Germany signed a non-visa regime for Polish and Tourists began arriving from beyond the Oder. "unsatisfactory state of cemeteries and their appearance is of an extremely sensitive surface and cause unnecessary and hostile, but just remarks from the tourists" - drew attention to the Provincial Association of Public Utilities and Housing in Zielona Gora. the district authorities have decided definitively resolve the question of all "post-German" cemeteries. Thousands of Catholic Protestant and Jewish places of remembrance razed to the ground.
In Glogow eliminated the cemetery has existed since 1280 years and in its place built a housing estate. The hetero endured as a funeral home, lived out by real people. The burial site Babimost "elder brothers in faith" poured concrete into school playground. On the mentioned policy for the first time in 1,399 years the Jewish cemetery in Slubice (Frankfurt) rested prominent rabbis, led by Theominem, the author notes about the kosher recipes. Despite this, the city led the plowed area of \u200b\u200bthe cemetery, and in the early nineties he sold to a private investor who built the hotel from the brothel. After protests from all over the world object closed and demolished in 1999 residents of Slubice and Frankfurt founded plaque.
Eckehart tomb covers Martin Borck, thin parchment, and then requires him to be imported oak ground. On my knees rubbed sand in the paper. After a while the entire tombstone with inscriptions imprinted on parchment. Germany strengthens this way, all found their album. Parchments kept rolled up like a Torah. Eckehart never know who he was with Martin Borck Krietsch Brandenburg. The only time I looked in the archives of information of influential handlarzu horses, Luis Schlavinskim, whose tomb was discovered alone in Kostrzyn.
no time explore the past, dead. There has even exposed their tombstones. Addressed the scientific and Jewish institutions in Germany, but none have expressed interest in lands lying abroad. For the majority of Polish researchers History "Recovered Territories" begins in 1945. - "I have a feeling that few people are interested" - admits Monika Krawczyk, Director of the Foundation Preservation of Jewish Heritage.
- "Abandoned cemeteries are like orphans, and to adopt cemeteries" - says Eckehart Ruthenberg. The inhabitants of the western border region has a very good sentence. Within three years, did not meet with any signs of hostility. Although it prefers that people not see odsłanianych his albums. If you are not conspicuous, are more likely to survive. The cemetery in Boleszkowicach recently someone stole about 10 CDs. In Trzciel unknown assailants demolished several records on the ground. Similar devastation took place in Schwerin.
Eckehartowi effort, and money enough for two trips to Polish a month. I realize that does not manage to find all 600 Jewish burial sites, located in north-western Poland. However, it will see the same grave, he wants to fulfill a dream: as required by tradition to surround one of the fence he had discovered Jewish cemeteries.
for Krzeszycami trees disappeared and the landscape flattened like the Netherlands. The road ran high escarpment, where overlooked the Warta River valley, crosses the dikes and canals lined alder. Signposts odsyłały through meadows to the village and named Głuchowo Budzigniew. By the end of the war Budzigniew village called Hampshire. The neighboring village Jamno was Jamaica, and today's Wildflowers - Pennsylvania. Exotic names were to increase the attractiveness of the town and to encourage colonists to settle here in the late eighteenth century. Settlers, who after World War II came from the east and center of Polish there was no need encouragement, so to this day with overseas lands is left only Malta. Villages changed the name of a familiar-sounding: Dzierzążnia, Lubomierzycko, Zaszczytowo. Kostrzyn before it started to rain. It was early spring and the National Park Warta Estuary looked like overgrown lake.
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| Eckehart Ruthenberg at the cemetery in Trzciel |
[1] Simon Wiesenthal; Jeder Tag ein Gedenktag. Chronik Jüdischer Leiden.
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