I received this email today. Very touching. Thank you IWG for writing it!
And what were your impressions after visiting Sokołów? Please share them with us!
8/14/25
The mayor of Sokolow refuses to change the name of the cemetery
On August 12th I received a letter from the mayor of Sokołów Podlaski informing me that she refuses to change the name of the "Polish Red Cross Park" to the "Old Jewish Cemetery." The reason given is that the Polish Red Cross provided aid to Jews during World War II.
The Old Jewish Cemetery is the oldest Jewish monument in the town. The tombstones there were destroyed during and after the war.
I haven't researched the history of all the ghettos in Poland, but I'm quite familiar with the history of the Sokołów ghetto. The Polish Red Cross did not provide aid to Jews in Sokołów and the surrounding area. As we read in Edward Kopówka's book "Treblinka, Never Again" (2002), the Polish Red Cross provided food parcels to prisoners of the Treblinka I labor camp, but only to Poles. "Unfortunately, Jews did not receive any parcels," we read on page 102.
The mayor cites the 1968 issue of the "Palestra" magazine as the source of her information. That year was, among other things, a time of anti-Semitic campaigns unleashed by the communists. What did “Palestra” write at the time? It supported antisemitic campaign led by the communists’ authorities.
Jews were accused of inciting students to protest. At special rallies, slogans of fighting against Zionism were proclaimed. Tens of thousands of Jews were forced to leave Poland—deprived of jobs, apartments, property, even family heirlooms and photos of relatives murdered in the Holocaust. Jews were then stripped of their Polish citizenship. To prove their ingratitude, false articles and books were published about the alleged aid Poles provided to Jews en masse during the war. It served party propaganda.
The truth is that food was delivered to Jews in the Sokołów Ghetto by the JOINT (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), a Jewish organization financed by American Jews. We have lists of names of people who received such food parcels in the Sokołów Ghetto. Not all of them could write.
As we know, illiterate Poles signed their names in official situations with three crosses. Illiterate Jews used three circles. This is because the cross was a centuries-old symbol of violence against Jews. We also find such signatures on the lists of beneficiaries of Joint food aid from the Sokołów Ghetto.
Jews did not want to be associated with the cross. Descendants of those buried in the Sokołów cemetery supported the petition on this matter. In response, we received unreliable sources from the period of the anti-Semitic campaign. I apologize to the descendants of Sokołów Jews for being so naive as to believe that a change of the authorities also meant a change in attitudes toward Jewish history.
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PETITION:
Sokołów Podlaski, December 10, 2024
The old Jewish cemetery in Sokołów Podlaski is currently named PCK Park. Although the PCK (Polish Red Cross) itself carries out commendable activities, the cross has historically been used multiple times as a symbol in conflicts against the Jewish community, including in our town and region. Therefore, it is not an appropriate name for the burial place of Sokołów’s Jews. For this reason, I address you with a petition to restore the original name of this place, which is “the old Jewish cemetery.” No one is registered as residing at this address, and no business activities are conducted there (the swimming pool is located at Bulwar 4 St.), so there will be no need to replace any individual or company documents. Such a change would be in line with the sense of historical justice and the need to restore respect for the deceased buried in our town.
Yours sincerely,
Katarzyna Markusz
The petition is supported by descendants of Sokołów’s Jews:
Marla Budkowski-Cohen
Moshe Carmeli
James Cohen
Amir Earon
Fred Feldman
Enrique Zvi Fleischmann
Dory Goldberg
Judy Goldberg Jankowski
Debbie Kroopkin
Avi Last
Orie Niedzviecki
Rachel Pekarsky
Shoshi Shatit
David Spiegel
David Wiseman
Suzette Wishnia Lougassi
Dave Wladaver
RESPONSE:
Mayor of the Town of Sokołów Podlaski
Sokołów Podlaski, July 24, 2025
In response to the petition you submitted on January 1, 2025, regarding the change of the name of the "PCK Park," referring to the area at Magistracka Street in Sokołów Podlaski, the Mayor of the Town of Sokołów Podlaski, after analyzing the legal, historical, and especially social context, informs as follows: The area in question covers plot no. 1472/1, where a Jewish cemetery was historically located. On December 17, 2007, the Town of Sokołów Podlaski entered into a settlement with the Jewish Religious Community in Warsaw before the Regulatory Commission for Jewish Communities (case no.: W.KŻ.-I-357/99). As part of this settlement, the Jewish Community waived its claims to the property, and the Town committed, among other things, to appropriately designate the area, remove elements of small architecture, and maintain order and respect for the burial site. All obligations arising from this settlement have been fulfilled by the Town, including the placement of a boulder with a commemorative plaque and signs stating, "Jewish Cemetery, Passerby, Respect the Peace of the Deceased." Benches were removed, and the area is maintained in proper order in accordance with religious law.
The name "PCK Park," or more precisely, currently "PCK Square," has been used in the city’s public space for several decades and is deeply rooted in the consciousness of the residents. According to data obtained from the Public Library, the first mention of "PCK Park" appeared in the newspaper Trybuna Mazowiecka in 1974.The Polish Red Cross (PCK) is an organization with an unequivocally humanitarian character, operating since 1919 in the spirit of respect for human dignity, regardless of religion, nationality, or beliefs.
During World War II, the PCK was one of the few entities that, despite German restrictions, provided assistance to the Jewish population as well. In this context, it is worth referencing a report published by Edmund Mazur in Palestra (No. 11/1968) regarding the activities of the PCK in the Podlasie region and Sokołów Podlaski, particularly in the context of aiding individuals escaping from transports to Treblinka and the Siedlce ghetto. The account of a long-time PCK activist, Attorney Marian Piesiewicz, indicates that despite formal prohibitions, local PCK members, through their contacts with the community, organized both ad hoc and ongoing assistance for Jews, providing food, medicine, and shelter. These actions were made possible thanks to the widespread generosity and courage of local residents. Quoting from the account:
"Although the PCK, as an institution, could not provide assistance to Jews, no one fleeing from extermination was deprived of it. [...] We, local PCK activists, having contacts with the community, were able to give these actions an organizational form and support them with material resources, especially food and medicine." (Palestra 12/11(131), 1968, pp. 65–104)
These facts emphasize that the PCK symbol in our town is not only not contrary to the idea of respect for the deceased but also commemorates those individuals and actions that provided assistance to Holocaust victims, including the Jewish community.
Considering the above circumstances, particularly the established local tradition and the humanitarian legacy of the Polish Red Cross, I deem it appropriate to retain the current name. However, I declare openness to initiatives aimed at further commemorating the history of the Jewish community in this place, with the caveat that any such actions should be conducted in consultation with the Jewish Religious Community.
Iwona Kublik, mayor of Sokołów Podlaski
We do not know and will never know how many people were murdered in Treblinka
Polish daily "Gazeta Wyborcza" just published an article in which I and Jan Grabowski describe our concerns with the current "memorial" situation in Treblinka and the threats ahead.
Below, please find an English translation of the article:
We do not know and will never know how many people were murdered in Treblinka.
Estimates range from 750,000 to 950,000 victims. A mere trifle, a spread equal to the current population of Częstochowa or Radom. Either way, we are talking about one of the greatest crimes in human history. The care and maintenance of these few hectares of meadows and forests, where to this day the earth constantly brings to the surface unburned fragments of the victims' bones, is the responsibility of the Polish state, which has become the custodian of this place of Jewish tragedy.
In the immediate post-war years, the site of the extermination camp became the scene of a terrible practice of desecrating human remains, hunting for gold teeth and any valuable items overlooked by the Germans and their accomplices while the “death factory” was operating at full capacity. Jan Tomasz Gross wrote about these terrible excavations in “Golden Harvest,” and a number of journalists took up the topic after him.
Years passed. A monument and a field of stones commemorating the exterminated Jewish communities, whose inhabitants ended up in the ovens of Treblinka, were erected on the site of the gas chambers and cremation grates. The whole area was covered with concrete, which put an end to the amateur excavations of Jewish gold seekers. Soon, however, the desecration of human remains was replaced by the desecration of memory.
Among the boulders commemorating the Jewish communities exterminated in Treblinka, stones with the inscriptions “Jedwabne” and “Radziłów” suddenly appeared. As we know, the Jewish inhabitants of Jedwabne and Radziłów did not die in Treblinka at the hands of the Germans, but at home, at the hands of Poles. Despite numerous requests, the management of the Treblinka museum refused to remove the monuments. The stones remain where they are, silently confirming the maxim that whoever has power is right.
The Treblinka Museum covers two camps: Treblinka II, which operated in 1942-43 and was the aforementioned site of the extermination of hundreds of thousands of Polish and European Jews, and Treblinka I, a labor camp that operated from 1941 to 1944. Jews and Poles worked there in inhumane conditions, except that Poles were sent to Treblinka I under German sentences, usually as a result of failure to deliver quotas or other violations of German occupation regulations. For Jews, transport to Treblinka I (as well as to the neighboring extermination camp) was a death sentence.
Approximately 300 Poles and 10,000 Jews died in the Treblinka I labor camp. Today, three hundred crosses stand on the site where thousands of Jews were executed, each commemorating a Polish victim of Treblinka I. And where are the 10,000 matzevot dedicated to the memory of the Jews murdered in the camp? Nowhere. The Jewish victims of the labor camp are simply carefully omitted from the museum's official narrative today.
Treblinka has no luck with memorials. On the site of the former railway station in Treblinka, where hundreds of thousands of Jews waited, suffocating in cattle cars, for their final transport into the camp, on the ramp, the Polish authorities, in the form of the Pilecki Institute, unveiled a monument to Jan Maletka in 2021. Maletka, according to representatives of the Polish state, was killed by the Germans while carrying water to dying Jews. Maletka, according to the official account, acted out of altruistic impulse, out of the goodness of his heart. However, we do not have even a shred of reliable historical information to confirm this bold thesis. On the other hand, there are many eyewitness accounts that Polish railway workers sold water to Jews dying of thirst—with the consent of Ukrainian and German guards—for large sums of money, valuables, and gold.
That's not all: work is underway on the construction of a new museum in Treblinka. The work is scheduled to be completed this year, and the main exhibition is to be unveiled in 2027, which, in museum language, is just around the corner. This also means that the main exhibition is probably already ready in its basic outline. Will it refer to the falsification of the history of Treblinka I, which is taking place under the patronage of the museum's management, just next door, behind the forest? What will this exhibition have to say about the attitude of the local population towards the Jews dying behind the camp's barbed wire? And how will it shed light on the participation of Poles in the liquidation of local ghettos? We have both been researching Treblinka for years and have been writing about it for a long time, but we have not heard a word about the planned museum or the main exhibition.
A “Wall of Names” is to be built next to the museum. The Treblinka Remembrance Foundation wants to engrave the names of hundreds of thousands of victims of the extermination camp on it. The whole idea is one big misunderstanding, because the Germans sent Polish Jews (who constituted the vast majority of Treblinka's victims!) to extermination camps without drawing up any lists of names for deportation. In France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, lists of names of Jews deported in each convoy were indeed compiled. Given that few people escaped from foreign transports and with the lists of names in hand, historians can venture to compile a list of foreign victims of Treblinka. But this is not the case with Polish Jews! As far as they are concerned, we know roughly how many people were sent, where from and when, but even here it is impossible to be precise. In the absence of lists of names accompanying the deportations, we are not and will never be able to compile a reliable list of Treblinka victims. The list, which is soon to be found on the Wall of Names, contains the names of people who may have died in Treblinka, who may have died during liquidation operations in distant ghettos, those who escaped and died (often at the hands of Poles!) on the Aryan side, and other people who have nothing to do with Treblinka. If the authors of this initiative really wanted, as they claim, to commemorate the names of individual victims, they would simply refer to Yad Vashem's “Book of Victims,” which lists the names of 4.5 million victims of the Shoah. Instead of a wall full of mistakes, we would have a huge book to browse through, a copy of the one that can be viewed at Yad Vashem, which contains most of the known victims of the Holocaust, including the victims of Treblinka II.
What do the planned museum, the wall of names, the Maletka monument, the stones with the inscriptions “Jedwabne” and “Radziłów,” and the crosses filling the Treblinka I labor camp have in common? The common denominator is the distortion of historical truth, bending it to political needs. In the civilized world, changes in commemoration in the most sensitive and most sensitive places—from the point of view of memory—are preceded by years of open and widespread consultation. In Poland, successive invasions of memory in a place as dramatically painful as Treblinka are preceded by deafening silence, followed by politicians' declarations of yet another fait accompli! We would like to remind you that Treblinka is not the property of officials and a small coterie of their friends and acquaintances! The minister appointing a small group of experts pretends to conduct consultations, which should take place among a wide range of people and institutions dealing with the subject. He should not close himself off to their voices, giving them only to people of his own choosing.
Quite recently, the Minister of Culture appointed the Treblinka Council. The moral duty of this body (and the test of its legitimacy) is to immediately stop the former and upcoming examples of the “pseudo-memory offensive” discussed in our text.
Meanwhile, we stand powerless in the face of yet another memory blitz by the Polish state. Do we not have the right to demand transparency in memory policy? Does the memory of the victims not deserve, now, more than eighty years after the crime, seriousness, focus, and transparency of intent?
Prof. Jan Grabowski
Dr Katarzyna Grabowska
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