Barn in Zawady, photo: www.tesknie.comA move by controversial artist, Rafal Betlejewski to burn down a barn to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the Jedwabne massacre of Jews in 1941, is getting mixed reactions from the Jewish minority in Poland.
Rafal Betlejewski, an artist known for his controversial art project entitled “I miss you Jew”, said “this drastic act is an attempt to revive the community of suffering. I would like to wake up from a pharmacological coma.”
Many Jewish organisations are reported to be outraged by the stunt, although Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich has not commented on Betlejewski’s happening.
The artist has asked Poles to write down their sins on white pieces of paper which will be burnt in the barn.
According to the Piotr Kadlcik, chairman of the Association of Jewish Communities in Poland, “the gaps in Polish-Jewish relations will not be filled by the burning down of a barn.”
“I am afraid that this kind of event, which includes the burning of a barn to the playing of an orchestra […] will [mark this anniversary] by turning it into a folk happening, in a bad sense of the term,” Kadlcik continues.
There are also signs of pain that have arisen from the planned artistic event. “I am a Jew: my grand-father […] and my aunt were burnt in the synagogue in Przemyslany or Przemysl. I don’t want to see a barn being symbolically burnt, this for me is a personal […] painful memory,” Elzbieta Magenheim is quoted by a Jewish society portal in Poland.
The local mayor of Tomaszow Mazowiecki, the district where the barn is to be burnt down, has also not given permission for Betlejewski’s stunt, as he was allegedly duped into allowing for the action to go ahead after Betlejewski told authorities that the barn is to be part of a film set depicting a scene from World War II. (jb)
Sources: Gazeta Wyborcza/Jewish.org.pl
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