Institutions, Actors, and Control in the Jewish Cemeteries of Poland, 1918-1939

• In Event: Eastern European Jewish Politics and Spaces Between the World Wars

Abstract

In interwar Poland, the Jewish cemetery became a central space through which Jewish communal institutions and Polish governmental actors came into contact. Within a newly established state after over a century of partitions, Polish institutions, both at the local and federal levels, attempted to reassert control over various spaces in the country. While Jewish cemeteries had traditionally been under the purview of the Jewish community, these spaces were brought to the center of debates over space ownership and decision-making during the interwar period. When Jewish cemeteries ran out of space for new burials or constructed new funerary buildings, requests to the state for land or permits brought Jews and non-Jews into contact with each other. At times, this relationship was successful, but at others, brought the Jews and non-Jews into conflict. The Jewish cemetery became a specifically powerful space through which these relationships were articulated. The space of the dead, one rife with ritual, tradition, and utility, was a complex place that initiated complicated relationships. This paper will examine the relationship between Jewish communal institutions, such as the KEHILLAH and the burial society, and Polish actors at the local and federal level as it came into contact through the Jewish cemetery. Through analysis of government records, YIZKOR books, newspaper articles, and KEHILLAH and burial society records, this paper argues that the Jewish cemetery became a significant factor in Polish state legitimacy and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in interwar Poland.

Author

• Alison Curry, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill