Brest, Belarus 

                                                              

    Brisk בריסק

Subject: (Belarus) Brest Town Built Out of Jewish Tombstones

From: "Jan Meisels Allen" <janmallen@att.net>

Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2014

Brest, Belarus, a town near the border with Poland and whose history with changing borders was at one time in Poland has discovered 450 Jewish gravestones in the foundations of the houses that have been demolished to make way for a new supermarket. The area, Central Brest, was once home to the Warburg Colony, a housing estate that was built to accommodate Jewish orphans after the First World War. When the Nazi's arrived in 1941 the Jews became victims of the Shoah. Following World War ll when the Communists took over the devastated Jewish community, the Communists went about  destroying any remnants of the Jewish community. In 1959 the largest Jewish cemetery in Belarus was turned over to become a sports arena. The Communists "recycled" the headstones which are now being found in Belarus road surfaces, pavements and gardens.  Over the past  six  years 1,500 headstones were found.

For now the headstones that are being dug up for the new supermarket are being "stored" by the 19th century Brest-Litovsk Fortress, a Soviet Second World War monument. The stones can't be returned to their original place as it is now the sports stadium and the original location is unknown.  A concern is that opportunists will try to make money off of the  metzevahs by conning visitors to make contributions to a fictitious memorial fund.

To read more about this see:

http://www.vice.com/read/jewish-graves-in-brest-belarussia-kate-samuelson-333

Thank you to the National Genealogical Society and their UpFront with NGSfor alerting us to the story.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee