Wacław Wierzbieniec

In 2014, celebrations of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Podkarpacie region were held in Rzeszów, Jarosław and Lubaczów. The whole event began in the Jarosław synagogue (currently Art School Complex) on Friday, January 24, with an opening of the exhibition “Return of the Hassidim” with works by Zbigniew Józef Tobiasiewicz and Katarzyna Dudek. Guests then met with town mayor Andrzej Wyczawski in the meeting room of the city hall. In the evening, Shabbat was celebrated in the synagogue. This was the first Shabbat celebrated in Jarosław since the Holocaust. The event was attended by Rabbi Icchak Horowitz from Kraków, Holocaust survivors, a youth group from Germany and other invited guests. Events on the second day of the celebrations included a meeting between local residents and Holocaust survivor Lucia Retman from Israel, as well as an opening of the exhibition “Righteous among Nations” (organized by the Rzeszów chapter of the Institute of National Remembrance) in the Jarosław Abbey. The memorial service for local Jews was held in front of a commemorative plaque in the synagogue; in the evening, rabbi Icchak Horowitz gave a musical performance. On Sunday, an intention mass was held for Podkarpacie Holocaust victims with Auxiliary Bishop of Przemyśl Archdiocese Dr Stanislaw Jamrozek in attendance. Names of those who had been persecuted and died during the Holocaust as well as those of the Righteous among Nations – Poles who hid Jews and often died with them – were read out loud. A joint prayer service and lighting of candles commemorating the victims of the Holocaust in Jarosław and local area were held at the wall of death by the Abbey.

Celebrations in Rzeszów began with a concert of music by Władysław Szpilman entitled Noone will Bring Back These Years (“Tych lat nie odda nikt”) in the Podkarpacie Philharmonic, with The Pianist’s wife and son, dr Andrzej Szpilman, in attendance. The commemorative event for Holocaust victims at Rzeszów’s Jewish cemetery on January 27, 2014, was attended by Rabbi Szalom Ber Stambler and a rabbi from Dynów, Benjamin Pinchas Pump. Other guests included representatives co-organizing the celebrations, guests from abroad (Lucia Retman and Roman Kessler from Israel, as well as Judit Elkin from Miami, USA), representatives of POLIN Museum of History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and the Foundation for Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland. University of Rzeszów hosted a panel discussion “The Issue of Jewish Genocide as Presented by Museums in Poland, Israel and the United States” with guests Justyna Majewska from POLIN museum in Warsaw and Ewa Koper from Bełżec Memorial Site and Museum. The meeting ended with an opening of an exhibition of Kolbuszowa Judaica from the collection of Wesołowski family and a meal in the symbolic “Jankiel’s Inn” at the Historical Institute of the University. The high point of the 6th celebrations of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day was the religious service referencing the Day of Judaism in Catholic Church in Poland coupled with public reading of names of gentiles from Rzeszów area who had been murdered for helping Jews and the Jews who were murdered with them.