In search of a lost world: Poland revives its Jewish past

Almost seven decades since Nazi Germany decimated Poland's Jews in death camps like the notorious Auschwitz, Europe's former Jewish heartland is reconnecting with a lost part of its identity.

The communists who took over after World War II imposed a wall of silence on a century of Jewish life here, but this has steadily crumbled since the regime's collapse in 1989.

Today, cultural festivals, cemetery restoration programmes across Poland, school Jewish history classes, national commemorations and burgeoning academic research are reclaiming the past.

"Actually the fact there was silence for 50 years, 20 years later many people have a greater appreciation of the role of Jews -- that's a very fast change," Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told AFP.

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