Bożena Gąsiorowska

Urban game Forgotten Traces “Who were the Saved Ones?” and Call for Commemoration is a project that builds local social capital in the scope of caring for the memory of the town’s Jewish past. Organizers of the game and call for commemoration were 15 students of Stefan Żeromski High School; participants included three middle school and two high school classes. The project consisted of extra-curricular activities inspiring students to gather information about local Jewish history on their own. Participants received excerpts from local resources and translations of the yizkor “Book of the Żyrardów Jews” and photos from this publication. Students were then working by themselves tapping into the resources of the local museum, library and the Internet. They chose themes for the game, prepared interactive tasks for participants as well as score sheets.

Their next task was to create a route for the game [Jewish cemetery, Jewish school, site of the synagogue, a well-known Jewish street, alley commemorated in a song composed by Żyrardów Jew H. Wagner] and to prepare the scenario for the Call for Commemoration and necessary resources to carry it out. They cooperated with the local museum, the Municipal Library and the Center for Citizen’s Education as specified by the regulations of the “Young Citizen” program – scenarios, learning materials and educator-led workshops.

The game and call for memory were organized in the town, engaging around 100 students as participants. Both projects, Forgotten Traces “Who were the Saved Ones?” and Call for Commemoration were part of the “Young Citizen” program of CEO in 2014.