This article was originally published in the Jewish News: here
More than 1200 remnant gravestones of Brest-Litovsk Jews buried on the land and countless others who perished in the Holocaust finally honoured
More than a thousand Jewish gravestones were finally brought together and officially recognised at the emotional opening of a memorial at the former Brest-Litovsk Jewish Cemetery in Brest, Belarus.
The event on Monday 28th July was the final step in honouring a Jewish community devastated by the Nazis, and the culmination of 12 years of unrelenting work and collaboration by The Together Plan, its US-based partner Jewish Tapestry Project, and the Jewish Religious Union of Belarus.
The opening of the memorial, designed by American artist Brad J. Goldberg, coincided with the historic day of the liberation of Brest in 1944.
Those present included dignitaries and representatives from the British, Bulgarian, Austrian and German embassies and Polish consulate, alongside Artur Livshyts, co-founder of The Together Plan and chair of the Jewish Religious Union in Belarus.
Traditional white mourning stones were placed on each of the fragments in poignant gestures of remembrance and respect, ensuring that not a single memory of those lost was forgotten.
Each of the surviving 1,200 gravestone fragments, until recently in storage, were discovered over the years by the townspeople of Brest.
Stephen Grynberg, who gave the cornerstone funding and commissioned the design of the memorial, said: “For me this monument is an act of justice, honouring and reclamation. Upon seeing the headstones for the first time, the idea of returning dignity to this place, to the people buried there and to the vibrant Jewish community they created was an obvious anecdote to the attempted erasure.”
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