A town in central Poland will protect a Jewish cemetery from being developed into a residential complex.
The City Council of Grodzisk Mazowiecki has leased the land of the city’s Jewish cemetery from developer Futura G.M., preventing the company from building a residential complex on the land.
“All work to clean the area will be conducted in a way that guarantees respect for those buried there, former Jewish residents of Grodzisk Mazowiecki, in close cooperation with and supervision of the Jewish Community of Warsaw,” said the mayor of Grodzisk, Grzegorz Benedykciski.
The city will restore the cemetery’s remaining historic gate from the 19th century, which includes a Hebrew inscription, and build a new protective fence around the cemetery.
The Jewish cemetery in Grodzisk was divided after World War II, with a small section maintained as a cemetery and the rest acquired by a private company. Plans to build apartments on the site were suspended in November 2014 after the Jewish community of Warsaw protested. — jta