Be me, average Polish girl, 17, raised Christian
Live next to this old Jewish cemetery, lots of graves, some trees and a little church
Always got along with the Jewish people who visit, they are very nice people and often brought small gifts for my family
There’s this sweet old lady who’s been looking after the place like it’s her own garden. She’s been doing it for over 40 years. She gets a bit of money from some rich family overseas (America I think?) connected to someone buried there (apparently someone important)
Apparently, some ambassador or official person(???) of the Jewish community in Poland makes the cemetery officially belong to that rich man. He buys up the land around it and starts bringing in visitors from Israel-like big organized trips.
Every year, more and more people come visit, it gets a bit crowded but it’s whatever, it’s fine.
Then some distant relative of the rich guy shows up, gets mad he’s not part of it, and starts running his own tours. Straight up builds a massive guesthouse on a permit for a small family house, he’s renting it out to the guests (everyone knows it’s probably not legal but no one does anything about it).
His guests bring chaos. Trash everywhere, loud music, disrespectful towards the local women. Neighborhood people get annoyed.
The original ambassador dies, a new one steps in his place, and somehow the cousin(?) gets control of the cemetery.
First thing he does is he chains it shut during a major holiday and locks people inside. Doesn’t let others in.
Then they bust through next to our house and make a second gate so people who traveled with HIM can enter… they also damage my parents’ fence. No permission.
Police come. They flash their paperwork, demand the sweet old lady hand over the keys. She refuses ,as she says, the keys belong to the rich guy, not her and she won’t give them someone else’s property.
Now the two branches of the family are in an argument. And guess who gets caught in it? Us and the rest of the neighborhood.
Fast forward to now: loud music at night, trash everywhere, old lady getting harassed by cops, and the atmosphere here is dead.
My dad’s building a giant cross in our backyard facing the cemetery.
Mom told me to make a big Palestine flag to hang over the broken fence. She’s also cooking the smelliest food possible outside to make a point.
Dad’s threatening to toss dead animals near the cemetery.
The whole neighborhood’s over it. What used to be a peaceful coexistence is now a soap opera.
Not hating anyone for their religion or anything, I’m really just tired of this whole circus.
Honestly feels like we’re living in some weird comedy series
Had to get that off my chest.