“A Polish Olympic Kayaker Takes on Jewish Memory.” That tagline or something like it is what often initially grabs people’s attention about Dariusz Popiela. He told me he is happy to use what he calls his “modest career as a sportsman” to bring attention to the devastating loss of the Jews in Poland during the Holocaust.
Dariusz is embarrassed to admit that he was around twenty years old when he realized the truth about the Jewish life that once existed in his city, Nowy Sącz—which he sometimes pronounces in the Yiddish way. About one third—11,000 out of 32, 000—of its pre-War in habitants were Jewish. Most of them were murdered during the Holocaust and yet there was no memory of them in his city. When he discovered that history and lack of memory he felt shame, as a Pole interested in history, as a resident of Nowy Sącz and as a human being. And he felt he had to act.
I was lucky enough to spend all of yesterday with Dariusz—he was generous with his time— and I hope our interview will be available soon on the Rescuer of Memory website (hopefully to be unveiled in April 2020) but to be brief: Dariusz created an organization called People, Not Numbers. It’s very important to him to show that the victims of the Holocaust were human beings with plans, with dreams, just like us. http://centrumfundacja.pl/o-nas
We went to Grybów where he together with other local activists, cleaned up the cemetery (which though fenced in, looked, he explained to me, like a jungle before). The plaques that they installed listed the names of all the victims that they know about. It was very poignant to see the ages of the children in particular: at the top of one column 2, 2, 7 mos., for example.
I accompanied Darek to a school where he spoke to 13 and 14 year olds first about his sporting career and then about his passion for preserving Jewish memory. The kids were enrapt.
People, Not Numbers will continue to mark cemeteries and places of executions and bring back to humanity of those who were murdered on this land so that they will not be forgotten.
Thank you, Dariusz for your passion, dedication and humanity.
Dariusz Popiela and I at the Jewish cemetery in Grybów
Darek always wears a kipa in the Jewish cemetery out of respect.
Such a beautiful spot and such tragic history.
The memorial in the Grybów cemetery.
People, Not Numbers.
The sites of two mass graves in the cemetery.