A derelict Jewish cemetery in Bosnia, a sad remnant of a community that almost disappeared in 1941, is being restored through the efforts of the local Muslim authorities and a Canadian Jewish soldier stationed there.

Lt. Gabriel Granatstein, 25, of Montreal, who has been serving with a peacekeeping mission since September, said that a local municipal leader, Salko Rekanovic, a Muslim, approached Canadian and other international forces about helping fix up the cemetery.

As the only Jew among the 11 Canadian soldiers serving with the European Union Force-led mission, Granatstein took up the challenge. The contingent is based in Bihac in the Una-Sana canton, a mountainous northwest region that is 90 per cent Muslim and where no Jews live today. The cemetery is in the town of Jezero-Privilica, about 15 minutes from Bihac, the canton’s main city.

Before World War II, about 14,000 Jews lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Jewish presence there dates back to the Spanish Inquisition. During the war, the area was controlled by the pro-Nazi Croatian Ustace government. Only 4,000 Jews are believed to have survived the 1941 deportations and executions, carried out, according to some sources, with Bosnia Muslim collaborators.

CJN