A group of Jewish museums has condemned the “illegal” behaviour of an Israeli Holocaust institution that reportedly smuggled historical artefacts from the former Warsaw ghetto out of Poland without the knowledge of the Polish authorities.
Warsaw city hall has also spoken out against the alleged act, while a local conservation official has announced that he will notify police of a potential crime.
Religious items have been discovered in a bunker in the former Jewish ghetto in Warsaw that was unearthed during construction work.
An Israeli Holocaust institution has transferred them to Israel, "keeping the transaction secret from Polish authorities" https://t.co/2IfIY9SfqE
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 25, 2021
Yesterday Israel Hayom reported that a bunker containing 100-year-old phylacteries, boxes used by Jews during prayer, had been discovered during construction work in an area of Warsaw that, during World War Two, was part of the Jewish ghetto created by the German Nazi occupiers.
The newspaper said that the Shem Olam Institute, an Israeli Holocaust research body, had learnt about the discovery and “secretly contacted the construction workers”. After “lengthy negotiations”, it arranged for the items to be transferred to Israel in a “transaction kept secret from the Polish authorities”.
Israel Hayom quotes Shem Olam director Rabbi Avraham Krieger saying that the discovery of the phylacteries – which has been announced just before International Holocaust Remembrance Day – “testifies to the Jewish lifestyle they maintained in the ghetto despite the horrors and the cruel reality in which they lived”.
A visualisation showing the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto superimposed on the modern city.
The full video, produced by @300gospodarka to mark the anniversary of the #WarsawGhettoUprising, can be viewed here: https://t.co/NbriC6TWsl pic.twitter.com/Ye4tYlCLSf
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 19, 2020
The news quickly aroused controversy in Poland, where it is illegal to take historical objects out of the country without permission. The crime carries a potential prison sentence of up to five years.
In a statement issued jointly by the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Warsaw Ghetto Museum and the Jewish Historical Institute, the three organisations’ directors condemned the reported actions of the Shem Olam Institute.
“As institutions appointed to protect the heritage and commemorate the history of Polish Jews, [we] wish to remind everyone that in the event of finding an archaeological artefact…[it should be] immediately reported to the competent authorities,” they wrote.
“The removal of artefacts from the country is subject to restrictions and is strictly regulated by law,” they continued. “We are shocked and outraged by the fact that artefacts from the Holocaust period have been illegally circulated.”
“We are appealing to all persons who have any knowledge of such artifacts to pass on such information to the institutions appointed for that purpose,” the directors concluded. “Artefacts are made available to the public in museums, which allows all visitors to join in the work of preserving the memory and…heritage of Polish Jews.”
Meanwhile, Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage informed broadcaster TVN24 that it is aware of the situation, which is being “thoroughly investigated”. A deputy minister has asked the conservator of monuments in the province where Warsaw is located to determine what had taken place.
The conservator, Jakub Lewicki, told TVN24 that he will notify police about the potential crimes of “failure to report archaeological searches and the removal of artefacts”.
Warsaw’s own conservator, Michał Krasucki, confirmed that “the law would be broken” if objects from the ghetto had been found and not reported to the authorities. He noted, however, that the reports so far are “not very specific” about when, where and how the bunker was discovered.
“This is an absolute scandal,” Barbara Engelking, head of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, told Gazeta Wyborcza. She noted that the area of the former ghetto still contains many remnants of its tragic history.
“But the sad fact is that Warsaw cannot keep an eye on what is hidden in buried cellars,” she added, and it relies on people to report finds to the authorities. In this case, it is likely that someone illegally sold the items, believes Engelking.
She said that the phylacteries would be of significant historical value. “We don’t know much about religiosity in the Warsaw ghetto, and this is such tangible evidence.”
A spokeswoman for Warsaw city hall, Karolina Gałecka, said that they are looking into the issue and, if items were removed without permission, would notify prosecutors of a crime.
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
