Ireneusz Socha

In 1981, after moving into a residential building in close proximity to Dębica’s Jewish cemetery, I attempted to get in touch with municipal authorities and the Jewish community to alert them to the poor condition of the site. Since World War II, the cemetery was in a lamentable state: there was no permanent fence or wall while the tombstones – for the most part destroyed by Nazi Germans – were strewn around its premises. What was worse, people from the surrounding houses treated the site as a place for recreation and leisure activities. After meeting Mr.Izrael Goldberg and seeking his advice, we decided I should write an intervention letter asking to clean up Dębica’s Jewish cemetery area and put up a fence that would prevent further damage to the headstones. I sent two copies of the document: one to the headquarters of the the Religious Union of the Mosaic Faith in the Polish People’s Republic Warsaw and the other to the Head of Dębica Municipality. The intervention was partially successful, as soon afterwards (in 1983) the municipality erected a provisional fence and put up a plaque warning that any damage to the tombstones would be punishable by a fine. Unfortunately, the preventive measures did not stop local vandals from causing further damage to the matzevot. We intervened in the City Hall and at the local militia station, but communist authorities were not willing to help. Through my work to defend the cemetery I became public enemy among my neighbors.

People would file denunciations about me. I started being visited by the secret police, who tried to stop me from implementing my plans. Nevertheless, I persevered. I wrote an article entitled “A Picnic at the Jewish Cemetery”, which was published by Gazeta Krakowska newspaper on December 10, 1993. I also informed the local newspapers in Dębica and Tarnów about the pitiful condition of the cemetery, in an attempt to influence the local authorities and public opinion. Real change only came in 1996, when the cemetery premises were cleaned up and enclosed with a new fence – thanks to a subsidy from the Nissenbaum Foundation. On August 20, 1996 the reconstructed Jewish cemetery was reopened in the presence of the local authorities, chairman of Nissenbaum Foundation and rabbis including rabbi Samuel Teitelbaum –Advisor on Jewish Affairs to the US President. Since then, the local municipality has cared for the cemetery under the supervision of the rabbinical commission. In 2005, I asked local newsreporter Artur Barwacz to photograph all existing matzevot to save the tombstone inscriptions from the natural process of disintegration. A few of these inscriptions had been deciphered and translated into Polish – the translations were included in the Book of Dębica. The Jewish cemetery in Dębica has its own website at Polish Jewish cemeteries (kirkuty) website.