Vulnerable Stones

The Vulnerable Stones project is a continuation of the “Children of the Ghetto” happening and a creative departure from the book “Children of the Tomaszów Mazowiecki Ghetto”, which is a compendium of knowledge about children born in the Tomaszów Mazowiecki Ghetto.

The group stone painting took place on Friday, 29 November 2024 at 6 p.m. at the Tomek Primary School at 62/70 Sosnowa St. The project has been carried out by participants of the history workshops led by Justyna Biernat, PhD, at the Tomek Primary School in Tomaszów Mazowiecki in cooperation with the Spaces of Memory Foundation.

All stones will be placed in the Jewish cemetery accompanied by the recitation of the Kaddish prayer in memory of the dead this Spring. We will insert 174 multicoloured, diverse stones from many corners of the world in place of the matzevahs, lapidarium or collective memorial, and with the stones we will share our bond and memory.

Why stones?

Through the act of painting, we tame the stone form and explore the fate of Jewish children. We want the interaction with our object to be conscious and intentional – the artistic qualities of the stones are intertwined with finding and recording the families’ trajectories and thus the many separate histories.

Here, the stone becomes a symbol of eternity and permanence through its strong, hard matter. We associate stones with the memory of the fragile, short lives of children born in the ghetto, and we do so through our paintings. For us, the stones are a carrier of the relationship we build with the past.

Together, we make a turn from stone monumentalism to everyday simplicity and plainness; from the topos of precious stones to vulnerable stones – deformed, harsh, not polished or technologically treated. The kind that we pass by every day, that are a natural and inseparable part of our landscapes, homes, places of tranquillity or travelling paths.

Vulnerable stones are in close proximity to us, they know the touch of our hands and can acquire the colours, children’s names and dates of their birth. We choose one stone so that, in the process of painting, we can learn the story of a particular child who was born in the Tomaszów ghetto. Through our creative involvement, each newborn is recorded and remembered.

Tomaszów ghetto

The order to establish the Tomaszów Mazowiecki ghetto was issued on 20 December 1940. At that time there were 15 636 Jews in the town (both permanent and temporary residents). The ghetto cosisted of three zones with a total area of 65 hectares.

We assume that a single, narrowed and closed area of the ghetto existed in the inner city in the years 1941-1942. We also include births that took place outside the central ghetto just before the resettlements (Gustowna and Władysława Streets, Wojciechowskiego and Szeroka Streets, Piłsudskiego Street and Kościuszko Square) and in the municipal hospital (Św. Antoniego Street).

The process of liquidation of the three sectional Jewish district and resettlement of Jews to its central part began at the end of 1940. ‘Small ghetto’, i.e. a forced labour camp for Jews, was separated on 2 November 1942. By this time, as of January 1, 1941, 174 Jewish children had been born. 

The extermination of the Tomaszów ghetto took place in late October and early November 1942. The ghetto inhabitants were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp.