The Poznan Matzevas Redemption Project (PMRP) The Nazis' purpose was to kill the Jews twice: first, physically; and, second, to kill their memory. To this end, the Germans destroyed Jewish cemeteries throughout Europe. Gravestones giving details of the Jews who dwelt for hundreds of years throughout Europe were rampaged. In Poznan, a city renowned for Jewish cultural life for centuries, most matzevos (Jewish gravestones) were broken into fragments and scattered, often used in building projects both by Germans and local Poles. Historians, genealogists, Poznan’s tourism, and Poland itself*, would benefit from the PMRP effort. Although, at first glance, such a project seems undoable since each gravestone –and there are thousands-- is its own individual puzzle. Not only does one need to put pieces of a puzzle together, where the pieces are 20, 30, or 40 pounds rather than scraps of cardboard, but the pieces first have to be found, collected, and sorted to determine which pieces belong to which puzzle. Such an effort seems impossible. However, real worth is in being, not in seeming. In the nearby town of Wronki, one dedicated gentile Pole, Daniel Kwaśniewski , collected thousands of matzevas fragments, brought them to a central work area, matched fragments from the same tombstone, pieced them together and set up a respectable lapidarium, which includes 80 completed matzevos. The Wronki lapidarium effort will serve as a model for what we intend to do in Poznan City. The "we," are dedicated people from Poznan's AMU History Department, The POLIN Museum, the Poznan Genealogical Society, and some staff of Lubon's Zabikowo Museum. Poznan's Jewish Gmina, Poland's Chief Rabbi, The Matzevah Organization, and others, including Poland’s National Institute of Remembrance and the Rabbinic Cemetery Commission of Poland are aware of our intention and supportive. “The 5 M’s”: Moral Motivation, Management, Muscle power, Matzevositis (a term invented to describe the “disease” of being inflicted with a passion to redeem Matzevos), and Money, are prerequisites. For the last of the M’s, we are petitioning for funding. Our “battle plan” is detailed in the accompanying PMRP Outline. A presentation of this effort was given at the International Jewish Genealogical Society Convention in Warsaw in 2019 by Bruce Brill. That presentation is the basis for the presentation scheduled to be given at the 2023 Gravestone Studies Conference in Denver on June 23. This is a first step in establishing awareness of the project and for this immediate funding is sought. A RT flight from Tel Aviv to Denver is about $1050 and additional $450 for local travel and lodging brings the figure to $1500. ________________________________________ Prof. dr hab. Rafał Witkowski, Vice Chairman of the UAM History Department ________________________________________ Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland ________________________________________ Jolanta Gumula, Deputy Director POLIN Museum, Warsaw _________________________________________ Genealogical Society of Great Poland President Wojciech Jędraszewski __________________________________________ Dr. Marcin Urynowicz, INR Historical Research Office ____________________________________________ PMRP Prime Mover Bruce Brill ____________________________________________ Poznan Jewish Gmina Head Ms Alicja Kobus *--especially in the wake of the controversy surrounding Poland’s 2019 Holocaust-related legislation and the virulent responses to it.