These are some pictures from my trip to Suwalki.
A modern, brand new gas stations with the cleanest restrooms I've ever seen anywhere. (Notice, also, the brand new cobblestone sidewalks outside of it. New sidewalks are being installed in a lot of places.)
The train station built in 1895.
The main street, demonstrating the typical architecture along it.
Two sidestreets, one pedestrian.
A traditional wooden house. There were several in the town, this one being across the street from the cemetery.
The cemetery in Suwalki used to be "in" the city, and as the city got larger it got moved "outside" of town. However, it's a short and easy walk from anywhere in the town center to the cemetery.
The cemetery is divided into thirds. One third is the Catholic cemetery. It is jammed full of ornate and well-maintained grave sites. Large marble tombs with flowers and landscaping and polished stones fill the area. It looks like this:
Over the wall is the Orthodox cemetery. It is much more barren, although there are a few clusters of graves. Some are clearly quite old (look in the background towards the left, in the trees) and some are more recent.
Then this is the Jewish cemetery, which is now little more than an open field. Many gravestones were salvaged and formed into a monument, and some still remain in their original places, and there is a Holocaust memorial at the entrance, but this is the Jewish cemetery, which stands out in striking contrast to the others.
Not pictured, because I didn't like how the photos came out: either of the two old churches in the downtown, the town square, or the ancient, abandoned Orthodox church.
Edit 2/20/06: I have uploaded some zip files with the rest of my pictures. Sorry they are huge - I didn't want to lose the picture quality by making them smaller. I divided them up into four categories:
Town Center
Town Outskirts
Cemetery Area
Railroad Area
On the upside, I did rotate them so they shouldn't be upside down anymore...
Comments (10)
Hi Cathy, This is Andy Gellis... .Sonnys son. Is Steve your Dad and Shikey your grandfather?
Posted by Andy Gellis | November 17, 2005 6:36 AM
Posted on November 17, 2005 06:36
Hi! Yes to both :-)
Posted by Cathy | November 17, 2005 8:45 AM
Posted on November 17, 2005 08:45
What a wondeful thing to do. Are there any Jews left in the town? Were you able to talk to people? I have so many questions.
I am Max Gellis's oldest daughter, now living in Knoxvile, Tn.
Posted by Elaine Breslaw | November 21, 2005 5:52 PM
Posted on November 21, 2005 17:52
I don't know if there are any Jews left in the town. I was disappointed, actually, that the tourist office was closed when I was there (despite lots of signs indicating that the opposite would be true) so I couldn't get more information (or even a map...). But there aren't any obvious signs of Jewish life there.
I talked a bit to the hotel clerk, but mostly I talked to two German tourists! There was also a young man on the train up whom I talked to a bit. But there was a language gap issue, and I couldn't ask him all the questions I had either.
But follow the link about the trip at the top of this post for more about it.
BTW, which Max Gellis?
Posted by Cathy | November 22, 2005 1:28 AM
Posted on November 22, 2005 01:28
thanks for this ...googled it. my great great great grandfather avraham suranski came from suwalki. sounds kind of sad that everything Jewish there is lost
Posted by Leonard Suransky | November 27, 2005 2:06 PM
Posted on November 27, 2005 14:06
Ok - I am Gwen Tandet Meltzer's daughter. I wanted just to say thank you as Jennifer Miller (Bernice's daughter) sent me the link to all of this and it is amazing. Is it true that Grandma Gellis first came to the US in the late 1890's thought it was barbaric and returned to Poland only to come back again after 1904? I now live in NYC.
Posted by Tammy Meltzer | February 20, 2006 8:10 AM
Posted on February 20, 2006 08:10
I hadn't heard that, and it sounds inconsistent with everything I'd heard. I did think that Abraham may have come ahead of Ida, but given that Ida was becoming a mother around this period and already had several young children by the time she came, I wouldn't have thought so.
Michael, do you have any information on this?
Posted by Cathy | February 20, 2006 5:19 PM
Posted on February 20, 2006 17:19
Hi
I was there in 1991 and visited the last jewish person alive in Suwalki...he was a survivor
and I videotaped his conversation with me which was in polish and translated by my guide
if anyone is interested I can copy it for the cost...bernice
Posted by b greene | March 8, 2006 8:48 AM
Posted on March 8, 2006 08:48
My grandmother Sarah(Levensohn)Levy emigrated from Suwalki with her parents, Joseph and Dora(Rubenstein)Levensohn, and her brothers and sisters. None of them ever had anything good to say about Suwalki or Poland. I applaud your interests and efforts.
Posted by Matthew Philips | April 19, 2007 9:56 PM
Posted on April 19, 2007 21:56
During my last vsit to the village of Jeleniewo a few years ago, I met Mr. and Mrs, Natan Adelson, the last two identified Jews living in Suwalki. I don't know whether they are still in Suwalki. Their address is/was UL WIGIERSKA 34. Mr. Adelson, speaks in Polish, Yiddish and I think French. They have a daughter who know lives in New York and married to a Russian Jew. A son lives in Warsaw and is/was married to a Polish woman. The are/were are very charming and hospital couple,
Posted by Herman Storick | November 23, 2008 1:38 PM
Posted on November 23, 2008 13:38