Jan 25, 2021
Ten sets of tefillin were found in the bunker, dug ahead of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, pointing to prayer quorums “underground and under the Nazis’ noses,” says Holocaust institute director.
By Hanan Greenwood, Israel Hayom via JNS
A bunker containing 100-year-old tefillin (phylacteries) hidden from the Nazis in World War II has been discovered in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto.
In recent years, Polish authorities have begun to demolish buildings inside the Warsaw Ghetto to turn them into residential buildings in a process of urban renewal. Following one such demolition, construction workers discovered an entrance to a bunker dug in preparation for the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. One of the Polish construction workers on the site who entered the bunker to clear it out discovered 10 phylacteries that had been hidden behind books and other items.
(JTA) â As the head of Polandâs Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, Piotr CywiÅski and his staff rarely intervene in matters that donât concern their imposing institution.
They even sit out debates that do concern them, such as Polandâs controversial outlawing in 2018 of rhetoric that blames the country for Nazi crimes.
But CywiÅski decided to speak out this week about the controversy surrounding Yad Vashem, Israelâs Holocaust museum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuâs plan to appoint as its head Effi Eitam, a hawkish retired general and politician who, a growing number of critics say, has used racist rhetoric against Arab Israelis and Palestinians.
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Piotr Cywinski, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, at a press conference in Oswiecim, Poland, January 26, 2020. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images/ via JTA/ SUE)
JTA As the head of Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, Piotr Cywiński and his staff rarely intervene in matters that don’t concern their imposing institution.
They even sit out debates that do concern them, such as Poland’s controversial outlawing in 2018 of rhetoric that blames the country for Nazi crimes.
But Cywiński decided to speak out this week about the controversy surrounding Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to appoint as its head Effi Eitam, a hawkish retired general and politician who, a growing number of critics say, has used racist rhetoric against Arab Israelis and Palestinians.
Yad Vashem s Hall of Names
The head of Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum has become the latest prominent figure to speak out amid the proposed appointment of a controversial former general as the new leader of Yad Vashem.
Historians and survivors have condemned Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to appoint Effi Eitam, a hawkish retired general and politician, to the helm of Israel’s national Holocaust museum. A growing number of critics say he has used racist rhetoric against Arab Israelis and Palestinians.
“I am concerned about the future of this institution,” Cywiński told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about Yad Vashem in a telephone interview last week.