WARSAW — A grave can be empty or have someone’s uncle buried in it from dozens of years ago. It can be made of brick or just earth. It can have a monument on top or none at all. It can be for tens of thousands of people or only a few.
This is what Poland’s illegal grave trade looks like.
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I’m on the phone with a man in the business: “The grave is empty, with room for two coffins. We need to get a letter from the office that we are transferring the right to use the grave. Then we arrange everything at the notary’s office.” The price is PLN 35,000 ($8,700). In cash, of course — plus the office fee.
The voice on the phone adds: “You can write that we are family and the fee will be lower.”
Some think these lies are not worth the risk, but not everyone. Some will testify to untruths, others will sell a grave with a family already buried in it. Marcin Polaczuk tried to prove in court that this is what the grave trade looks like in Poland. It’s a system that has no respect for the rules, full of lies and fraud, payments under the table and false testimony. The justice system was not interested in his story.
Location, History, Prestige
The cemetery on Lipowa Street in Lublin is one of the oldest and most valuable necropolises in Poland. It is located in the city center, and was established at the end of the 18th century.
Many generations of Lublin residents are buried at Lipowa. Including victims of the cholera epidemic that regularly broke out in the city in the 19th century. Due to its location, near the heart of Lublin, the cemetery cannot be expanded. There are about 26,000 graves here. No more can be built, because the existing ones are extremely tight.
If someone wants to bury a deceased person at Lipowa, they have two options. The first is to buy the plot from the necropolis office. This occurs extremely rarely, only when someone does not pay the extension fee for the grave, which must be done once every 20 years.
The second option is to change the grave owner. This is the official name. In reality, it is often simply trading in burial places. In violation of regulations, norms and principles. Trade flourishes only in closed necropolises. Located in attractive and sometimes historical locations, often in the city center. Such as Lipowa Street in Lublin. But also Warsaw’s Powązki or Krakow’s Rakowice cemetery.
My grandparents raised me
Marcin Polaczuk begins to describe the procedure of trading in graves that he first encountered in 2011. “My grandparents, who raised me, wanted to secure a burial place for themselves. So that the family would not have problems. That’s why they wanted to be in Lipowa. It’s convenient and my grandfather’s mother is buried there.”
Obtaining a burial site through the official path was practically impossible, so his grandparents regularly browsed a newspaper with advertisements. There they found an offer from a “seller” of a grave. They were not aware of the procedures. But the “seller” explained everything quickly and clearly.
The grandparents decided to buy the right to dispose of the grave. They would exhume the body, build a grave and in the future, they would be buried in it. The administrator would be their daughter, as a much younger person. She would also be buried with them.
According to Marcin, it looked like this: the mother gave the “seller”, who was a complete stranger, the money in hand. They signed the appropriate documents, lying that they were family, because the grave was not empty. They wrote that they were cousins. Brother and sister. No one checked it. The transaction went well. Everything was supposed to be perfect.
Marcin notified the prosecutor’s office last year. He demanded prosecution for certifying falsehoods in documents, misleading an employee of the law firm and finally for giving false testimony in court. The case was referred to the police, but the state chose not to pursue.
Prosecutor Kinga Pasieczna-Okoń did not find any signs of a crime, arguing that his case is not an isolated one. And the grave trade is not a marginal phenomenon.
How Poles “Sell” Graves
At Marcin’s suggestion, I go to the cemetery on Lipowa Street. On the notice board, in addition to the obituaries, there are several cards entitled: “I will give up the right to dispose of the grave.”
I call the number.
“The grave has a granite monument. Empty. I bought it 25 years ago when my husband died, but then I moved closer to my children and took his body to another cemetery. There is room for four coffins on Lipowa, but it can be expanded to seven. And even more urns will fit. If you are interested, we agree on a price and go to the office to transfer the right to dispose of the grave,” says the first interviewee.
“So what’s the price? And do we transfer it to a stranger or to the family? I ask.
“Well, for a stranger, we don’t know each other. The price is 70,000 (,470). In hand. If you want a contract, we can draw it up. But it’s just for you, for the drawer, so you don’t show it to anyone”.
The price knocks me off my feet. I try to find something cheaper. I call another number.
“The grave is cleaned. For seven places. I’ll sell it for 25,000.”
What the rector says
I ask Father Cezary Kostro, rector of the All Saints Church, which manages the Roman Catholic cemeteries at Lipowa and Unicka streets in Lublin, about the grave trade.
“Of course, such practices exist,” the priest admits. He does not want to talk about the details or the scale. The cemetery office also does not ask directly whether someone is selling the rights to a grave. However, the data shows that every month the cemetery office at Lipowa Street receives two or three applications to transfer the right to dispose of a grave to a stranger.
Father Kostro sums up the situation: “The so-called “grave trade” is reprehensible for several reasons. Firstly, for moral reasons, and secondly for legal reasons. It is cheating the state, because taxes are not paid on such a dishonest transaction. It is also cheating the merchant, who is convinced that everything will definitely be fine. This is already a certification of falsehood and may end in court.”
