On May 22, 2017, a charity concert of the “Jarmuła band” group from Krakow took place in the Municipal Culture Center in Brzesko. All funds raised during the concert will be allocated to the reconstruction of the monument on the mass grave in the Jewish cemetery at Czarnowiejska street.
When listening to Jewish melodies during this concert, I suddenly realized that 80 years ago this music could be easily heard in the city. There was no need to buy tickets for a special concert – it was enough to walk the streets of the town. It is true that Jews in diaspora have always kept their separate identity, and yet the cultures intertwined. So many Jewish words, sayings, recipes, melodies have become part of Polish landscape, although we are often not even aware of it…
The entire concert has become a journey into this vanished world… We cannot bring it back to life, but we can keep the memory alive. We can do at least that much for all those people who were murdered only because of being Jewish.
During the concert, which was also attended by an almost 90-year-old former Brzesko resident, Holocaust survivor Dov Landau, we managed to raise over 2,000 zlotys. We have also received substantial donations from private donors, first of all descendants of Brzesko Jews. I hope, that we will be able to unveil a new monument during the next March of Remembrance that will take place in September.
The author of all photos is Mr. Marek Koldras.
© Anna Brzyska, 2017