Construction In Belarus Reveals Recycled Jewish Headstones As Building Materials

New construction of a supermarket in the Polish-border town of Brest, formerly known as Brisk, today a part of Belarus, has left residents horrified, as the project has unearthed that many of the town’s homes and structures were built using recycled Jewish headstones left over from WWII.

Vice.com reports that the since digging for the new supermarket began in May, some 450 Jewish headstones have been unearthed, bringing the total to over 1,500 during the past six years.

Brest, which originally housed The Warburg Colony, an estate dedicated to orphaned WWI Jewish children, developed a sizable Jewish community and ultimately a good-sized Jewish cemetery.

Brest’s entire 30,000 member Jewish community was destroyed by the Nazis during WWII.

Arriving post war, Soviet led Communists leveled the cemetery to build a sports arena, in the process “recycling” Jewish headstones as good building materials due to the quality of the stone.

Residents of Brest, in conjunction with a UK and US affiliated group called The Together Plan, have been stockpiling the headstones in hopes of including them in a memorial to the lost Jewish community.

Debra Brunner, co-director of The Together Plan, said both Jewish and non-Jewish community members care deeply that the headstones are preserved in some kind of memorial, but that more money is needed to move the project forward.