Chełmno


Class of high school students is listening to a lesson. The passage on the wall tells of villages „from the old man to the infant“ being taken to the woods and shot, the bodies burned. „We ask our brothers to punish our murderers … witnesses, tell of our murders throughout the world.“ As I walked up the young man in the red shirt to the right was tossing a small ball in the air and catching it again and again. At first I couldn’t believe it, but then I remembered. I’ve seen groups of kids at various sites. Kids will be kids.


This is new since I was here last year, but it is also new in striking ways: there is no other memorial plaque with „Contributed By“. When the Goldstein family mourns their grandparents who were murdered, when worshippers of Koło remember those from Koło burned alive when the Nazis torched their synagogue it is reasonable to assume that it is Goldstein and Koło descendants paying for the plaque. There is no need to say this – I mean seriously, why would you put donor credit on a plaque? But there it is, the „Contributed By“ and moreover the whole complex „Financed from the budget of …“ banner at the bottom. I wonder if this is the PiS at work.

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