In the video above, David Wluka (CGS’66 to the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on the 45th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising BU Today is revisiting some of the past year’s favorite stories Icek Wluka led his son David through the iron gates of Auschwitz the first time he had returned to Poland since the war and he remembered every inch of the camp where his seven siblings had died Wluka showed David the barracks where he had slept from age 20 to 23 the crematorium where he had been forced to work and the field where he had sown potatoes with a rifle pressed to his head Hoping to evoke the life the Nazis had ripped from him 46 years earlier Icek brought his son four hours north to his ancestral hometown He wanted to show David where he came from: his house and the cemetery where his father was buried But the Nazis had purged every trace of the 4,000 Jews who once lived in Nowy Dwór and bones for concrete and the matzevot (headstones) to fortify the roads for their tanks “There’s no sign that it ever was a cemetery,” says David Wluka (CGS’66 “It was just a big vacant field with holes.” Squatters had taken up residence on the land that “belonged to no one We had no history we could put our hands on.” the father and son said the Mourner’s Kaddish for the Jews who had been exhumed from this sacred ground watching his father praying in the barren field David and Icek were determined to save the cemetery and it would be more than 20 years before David could revive the lost history of the town where his father was born “We had no history we could put our hands on.”—David Wluka In 2010, to honor Icek, establish a site of remembrance, and give his own children and grandchildren a link to their heritage, Wluka, together with Ze’ev Shaked, the son of Icek’s father’s partner in the blacksmith shop, established the Nowy Dwór Jewish Memorial, a nonprofit foundation devoted to restoring the cemetery and the Jewish heritage of Nowy Dwór. In collaboration with the city’s mayor and citizens, the Jewish Community of Warsaw Wluka and Shaked secured the cemetery property a municipal utility crew made a poignant discovery: 12 headstones buried beneath a nearby road “Now that we know roughly where the headstones are but we can’t dig up good streets looking for them,” the mayor told Shaked But when the groundbreaking ceremony garnered attention from the local press and Polish national television they have unearthed 125 of the estimated 800 matzevot Because there is no record of the original burial plots the foundation commissioned a memorial wall to mount the stones on “To think that they had been buried six to eight feet underground since 1942… When I touched the headstones at the dedication ceremony Wluka and Shaked have since expanded their undertaking to honor all 4,000 of the city’s Jewish residents who perished in the concentration camps They established a 100-foot memorial wall of black granite inscribed with the names of the dead The wall has reunited families separated by the war—as have the foundation’s efforts to publish the Jewish records from the local archives When David Wluka first visited the Jewish cemetery in Nowy Dwór “it was just a big vacant field with holes” where the headstones had stood were “works of art” inscribed with biblical passages and poetry Wluka’s work figures into a widespread movement to reestablish the Jewish culture stripped from Poland during the Holocaust. Polish Jews, with assistance from the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland are restoring synagogues and other monuments in towns and cities throughout the country Thanks to a 1997 law granting Jews the right to reclaim communal property they are repossessing more than 1,400 cemeteries Nowy Dwór has embraced the effort: the Taxi Drivers Association has commissioned a four-foot stainless steel Star of David for the cemetery fence and the mayor has spearheaded a Jewish walking tour of the town The tour booklet illustrates the locations of former Jewish landmarks—the synagogue the rabbi’s house—even Icek’s father’s blacksmith shop Wluka and Shaked also establisheded an annual tolerance essay contest at the local high schools as well as collaborated with Wluka’s cousin in Gedera to bring 120 children from Gedera to Nowy Dwór for a three-day conference on tolerance with their Polish counterparts The Nazis so eradicated the Jewish culture from Poland that before this conference “the Polish kids had never seen Jews before,” Wluka says a fact echoed by 15-year-old Bartosz Cheda in his award-winning essay: “I don’t know any Jewish citizen personally but I know one important thing—I belong to the generation brought up in a free democratic country….We must know that xenophobia and hostility toward all the ‘others’ are actions which sooner or later will lead every society to nothing.” While his work has expanded in ambition and scope Wluka remains dedicated to his original goal of restoring the cemetery to give his family—and thousands of other Jewish families—a history they can “put their hands on.” He wishes his father were here to see it Soon after returning to the United States in 1988 early-onset Alzheimer’s stole his final years “When we would visit my father in the nursing home he had no clue who his great-grandson was,” Wluka says “You think about how he came to this country with virtually nothing and made a life for himself and my mother and had three sons and put us all through college….After all he went through to not have a peaceful end to his life was dramatically unfair.” Wluka is raising funds to unearth the remaining 600 matzevot that have been buried beneath the roads for more than 70 years Lara Ehrlich can be reached at lehrlich@bu.edu A version of this story originally appeared in the summer 2015 edition of Collegian What a lovely gift not only to your family but it’s wonderful to learn about Wluka’s efforts The project continues as you can see on our website Most recently we have been afforded access to ground-piercing radar to search for more headstones We of course need to raise funds to pay for the excavation road repair and the creation of a second wall I am overwhelmed at all that fundraising involves The matzevot (headstones) of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki – an important memorial for generations to come ― żeby tworzyć przyszłość należy pamiętać o przeszłości I am the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Novy Dvor I believe my great grandparents and some of their children were buried there I am also a graduate of Boston University ‘76 My Father Mojsze came from this city,Nowy Dwor according to his Petition for Naturalization,along with his Sister Taube The Naturalization shows that my Grandfather Szmul located in Brooklyn,NY had a Brother in Law by the name of Chajem Josel My Father told me many years ago that his Mother named Ida had passed on in Poland If almost all the gravestones were demolished/destroyed it appears that I may never know for sure my grandfather Drozdowicz Herz-Ber die in 1935 – he was born in Novy dvor- Ida she was his daughter also Rucla and Josef- thank you My mother escaped Hitler’s holocaust and their mother Dora emigrated to the U.S I guess their names would have been Rashke They joined my grandfather who was already a U.S They had a huge family and only six survived the horror My mom would have loved to read this article and been saddened by the horror and happy with the fact that they are being remembered Pioneering Research from Boston University Milašius wypożyczony do Świtu Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki Titas Milašius rundę wiosenną sezonu 2019/2020 spędzi w Świcie Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki Litwin szeregi trzecioligowca wzmocnił na zasadzie półrocznego wypożyczenia z naszego klubu Urodzony 12 grudnia 2000 roku Milašius kontrakt z naszym klubem parafował 27 lutego 2019 Rundę wiosenną sezonu 2018/2019 spędził jednak jeszcze w Escoli Varsovii Warszawa gdzie w 24 meczach w Centralnej Lidze Juniorów U-19 zdobył 9 bramek W rozgrywkach PKO BP Ekstraklasy oficjalnie zadebiutował 26 lipca w pojedynku przeciwko Lechowi Poznań a poza tym jesienią wystąpił w 7 spotkaniach Wisły II Płock w których zanotował bramkę i 2 asysty że pochodzący z Wilna zawodnik regularnie otrzymuje także powołania do reprezentacji Litwy do lat 21 w której mimo młodego wieku zaliczył już 10 występów.  Teraz 19-letni skrzydłowy został trzecim graczem wypożyczonym z Wisły Płock w ostatnim czasie Wcześniej na tej samej zasadzie do Chojniczanki Chojnice i Stali Stalowa Wola trafili odpowiednio Maciej Spychała i Adrian Szczutowski Polityka prywatności Wisły Płock S.A. Created: InfraCOM TERMINARZ MECZÓW WISŁY II PŁOCK (SEZON 2024/2025) Stomil Olsztyn - Wisła II Płock 1:1 (0:0) Victoria Sulejówek - Wisła II Płock 2:2 (1:1) Wisła II Płock - Jagiellonia II Białystok 1:1 (0:1) ŁKS Łomża - Wisła II Płock 0:0 Wisła II Płock - Unia Skierniewice 0:3 (0:2) Lechia Tomaszów Mazowiecki - Wisła II Płock 1:0 (0:0) Wisła II Płock - Warta Sieradz 3:0 (2:0) 1/8 finału forBET Mazowieckiego Pucharu Polski - 2 kwietnia godz Kasztelan Sierpc - Wisła II Płock 2:5 (1:1) Broń Radom - Wisła II Płock 3:2 (2:0) Wisła II Płock - GKS Wikielec 1:3 (0:2) Mławianka Mława - Wisła II Płock 3:0 (0:0) 1/4 finału forBET Mazowieckiego Pucharu Polski - 23 kwietnia godz Mazovia Mińsk Mazowiecki - Wisła II Płock 1:2, rzuty karny 5:6 Wisła II Płock - Wigry Suwałki 2:1 (1:0) Sokół Aleksandrów Łódzki - Wisła II Płock 2:3 (0:1) 1/2 finału forBET Mazowieckiego Pucharu Polski - 14 maja Polonia Lidzbark Warmiński - Wisła II Płock Wisła II Płock - Świt Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki