Sunday, August 10, 2008

Video: The Jewish Cemetery of Tarnobrzeg, Poland

One of the random things I do is volunteer as the website administrator for a "ShtetLinks" website. That's is a website--hosted by a Jewish Genealogical Organization (http://www.jewishgen.org) --about a particular European Jewish community. Tarnobrzeg, Poland was the town that the Weil family emigrated from in the early 1890s.  I've been the web admin for the site for 5 years or so.  A couple of hours a year keeps the site informative and interesting.

Some high school students in Tarnobrzeg decided to interview older townspeople about the Jewish community there, about the cemetery that is still in the town, and about the horrific end of a vibrant community during WWII.  Gayle Riley, the brains behind the website, had the vido subtitled into English. You can find it here: http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Tarnobrzeg/index.htm

The music is a little mismatched, but the story is powerful, sad, and tragically typical. The nonchalance of the townspeople is particularly fascinating. The video is long - 18 minutes - but worthwhile to watch.