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June 29, 2001/Tamuz 8, 5761, Vol. 53, No.39
Face to faceEditorialThe discovery of the Bruno Schulz murals in a pantry in Drogobych, Ukraine, and their removal by officials of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum and remembrance authority in Jerusalem, brings Jews face to face with the painful issue of memory.The wall paintings, commissioned under duress by a Gestapo official for his son's nursery, were uncovered by filmmaker Benjamin Geissler while researching a documentary about Schulz, a Polish-Jewish writer and artist who died in the Holocaust. Whether Yad Vashem secured permission to remove the panels from either city officials or the home's present owners has yet to be clarified. But the issue of who has the right to be the guardian of memory has come into bold relief. Even as Yad Vashem argues it has a "moral claim" to the artwork, museum officials have diminished their position by scoffing publicly that the citizens of Drogobych have little regard for Schulz, his work and his death in 1942. Some insinuate that the sudden Ukrainian interest may be fueled more by money than by memory. Tourist dollars could flood the area should it become the site of a major Schulz museum. Others suggest the citizens of Drogobych are moved by a genuine interest in their former Jewish neighbors. The issue is layered with pain and distrust. The region has a long history of latent anti-Semitism, including the heinous massacre of some 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar in September 1941. Such memories do not die easily. Nor should they. This was evinced when Pope John Paul visited Babi Yar this week, reciting De Profundis, the Latin prayer for the dead. Yad Vashem's returning the panels to their native milieu would compel the city to provide a fitting memorial to Schulz and others who perished. And it would further the institute's mission, forcing Ukrainians and others to confront the insidiousness of evil and come face to face with the enormity of Jewish loss and the necessity of making amends. Teshuvah, repentance, is central to Jewish tradition. A memorial in Ukraine would signify a move toward such hopeful change. |
