International workcamp - the renovation of the Jewish cemetery in Michalowo,
18.08 - 02.09.2007.

        

         Fifteen volunteers from Poland, Germany and Lithuania participated in the workcamp, which took place from the 18th of August to the 2nd of September 2007 in Michalowo. We would like to thank a German organisation Jugend bewegt Europa and a Lithuanian organisation AC Patria for their help in recruiting the volunteers.

         We managed to do nearly everything we planned. The Jewish cementary, 2,5 km away from Michalowo, has been cleaned. Gravestones have been restored, brushwood and some trees have been cleared, a map of the cementary has been drawn, and all the grave insciptions have been written down. However, information tables are not ready yet, they will be placed in Michalowo as soon as January 2008. Volunteers from Bialystok are going to take care of this, and they are going to take new photos of the stones for documentation as well. The grave insciptions are beeing translated at the moment at the University of Heidelberg. This translations will be available to everyone at the local library as well as at our website.

         The renovation works at the cementary constituted an important part of the workcamp and the volunteers had been prepared for them during a two-day workshop. An equally important part of our project was handling the subject of ethnical and cultural diversity in the region. We focused mainly on aspects of Jewish culture, which was widely present and very important in the region until the outbreak of the WWII.

         During to two excursions and workshops, the participants of the workcamp could experience this cultural diversity and they search for remains of the Jewish presence. One trip was to Tykocin, Suprasl and Kruszyniany. In Tykocin we visited a synagogue and a Jewish cementary, where we were examinig the symbolics of drawings and inscriptions on gravestones. In Suprasl, we took a walk in an old part of the town, where traces of the German minority, that used to live there, are still to be seen. We also saw an Orthodox church and a monastery there. In Kruszyniany we visited a mosque and a muslim cementary. During our trip to Bialystok we followed Jewish traces in the city, guided by Mr. Radoslaw Poczykowski from the local university. A workshop about Jewish culture and religion conducted by Natalia Baginska was the highlight of the workcamp. A very interesting exchange of thoughts took part during the workshop about antisemitism and Polish-Jewish relations.

         Our project has found a big echo in the media. A feature about our work was transmitted in local TV news, and a 15-minutes long documentary has been made for the regional television. There was a short reportage in Radio Bialystok. At the beginning of February an article about our project and the programme "Voluntary service for the European cultural heritage" has been published in a historical magazine "Spotkania z zabytkami".

         We would like to thank following persons for their help: the major of the town, the firemen and persons from Zaklad Komunalny. We felt very welcome by the people from Michalowo.

         The project is beeing continued. Volunteers from Bialystok as well as from GOK (regional cultural centre in Michalowo) are preparing a photo exhibition from the workcamp. During the work at the cementary we found original paintings at some gravestones, which should be conservated. However, we didn't manage to do this during the workcamp, because we did not have an expertise on this. The students from Bialystok are planning to carry specific works on that in summer next year.

         The success of this project convinced the ANAWOJ association to keep engaged in the conservation of monuments. There are still many decaying objects in the region waiting for similar actions.

Contact:
Pawel Kosicki
hrabia@gmx.de

Pawel Kosicki - Stowarzyszenie ANAWOJ
Magda Kurpiewska - Stowarzyszenie ANAWOJ