Why do we call Jewish heritage difficult?
Not all Jewish heritage is difficult by definition. Material heritage objects and sites can also be places of celebration of culture, places of learning and identity- building. In Poland, however, many sites related to 1000 years of Jewish history were desecrated, misused, destroyed during and after WWII. These damaged and neglected sites, along with the tragic legacy of the Holocaust, form a particular type of heritage that is often called “difficult heritage”. This difficult heritage consists of a broad diversity of sites, such as abandoned, destroyed or inappropriately repurposed architectural heritage (synagogues, bathhouses, schools, etc.), neglected or desecrated Jewish cemeteries, unmarked burial sites of victims of the Holocaust, as well as the material remains of the infrastructure of genocide.