Senator Jacob K. Javits (R. N.Y.) recently told the Senate that Poland has confiscated the cemetery of Lvov and built a park on its site and warned that Babi Yar is in danger of being converted into an amusement park if no action is taken. Javits said the situation was brought to his attention by the Geder Avot section of the World Center of European Rabbis which plans to build memorial houses in Israel for the martyrs, for those who no longer have gravestones, and for the more than 2000 cemeteries which were demolished during World War II by the Nazis in Poland, the Soviet Union, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
The Senator noted that the Geder Avot “has for some time been endeavoring to obtain reparations for the destruction of these cemeteries” but that “unfortunately, these efforts have not met with success.” Javits said that many Jewish graveyards in Poland including those in cities such as Stanislaw, Regzazov and Belz, are endangered. With the destruction of these graveyards, many of them more than 1000 years old, “the last historical traces of the Jews of Poland will be effaced, “Javits said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
