Throughout the summer Leaders of Dialogue are organizing commemorations on the anniversaries of deportations and liquidations of ghettos in their town. Despite restrictions resulting from the current health crisis, they continue to bring back the memory of Jewish inhabitants of their towns. For instance, in Bialystok the Museum of the Jews of Bialystok and the Region organized a two day commemoration entitled “Absent Family” to honor the anniversary of the beginning of the Białystok Ghetto Uprising. The event invited all to learn about this important Polish/Jewish history of the town. The organizers planned a number of lectures, concerts, films, and performances, all happening in the building of the former Jewish trade school Tarbut at Lipowa 41D. Check out their website at www.jewishbialystok.pl and Facebook page for more information.

On Monday, August 3rd, members of the Cukeman’s Gate Foundation organized a ceremony commemorating the 77th anniversary of the liquidation of the Będzin ghetto. The ceremony honoring the memory of the Będzin Jews killed in the Shoah was open to the public. The organizers invited everyone to put flowers and light candles in memory of those who perished. Check out the photos of the event here and the film here.

Leaders from Otwock, Brzesko, Rymanów, and Pułtusk planned Marches of Rememberence organized in a way that ensured safety of all the participants. The March of Remembrance in Rymanów held on August 13  began at the town square. In Otwock, the March took place on August 19, at 7 p.m., and began at the intersection of Reymonta and Samorządowa streets.

Apart from Marches, another way that Leaders are honoring the memory of Jewish communities of their towns are exhibitions. In Dukla, Jacek Koszczan and the Cross-border Cultural Exchange Center presented an exhibition entitled “On your land I’m singing the song of your people: The Lives of Jews from Podkarpacie.” Before the opening, the organizers planned a prayer at the local Jewish cemetery scheduled for August 13. In Biecz, Krzysztof Przybyłowicz organizedan outdoor exhibition focusing on the Shoah, which was available for visitors on the town market square starting August 14. The exhibition was open for 4 days, equal to the number of days Biecz Jews spent awaiting deportation to Bełżec.

In Czarny Dunajec, as part of the “People, Not Numbers” project, the opening ceremony of the newly restored Jewish cemetery included also the unveiling of a new monument featuring the names of Holocaust victims from the area, as well as tombstones placed to honor the victims buried in mass graves. The project also involved ceremonies at previously restored Jewish cemeteries in Grybów and Krościenko near Dunajec.

The Leaders associated with the Shetl of Tsanz have been organizing Assemblies of memory in Stary Sącz, Limanowa, Gorlice, and Nowy Sącz each year. This year, due to the unpredictable health situation, they decided to change the formula of the commemoration and invite local residents to place flowers, stones, or light candles at local monuments to Jewish suffering.

We encourage you to follow the updates and participate in the events organized by the Leaders. We shall be adding news of other events and commemorations here in the upcoming weeks, as well as reports of events.

Reports

Wieluń

On August 22nd, 2020, Wieluń commemorated the 78th anniversary of the liquidation of the local ghetto. This annual event was initiated by the Szlakiem wieluńskich Żydów / History of the Jews from Wielun project group that has started as a part of 2016 edition of School of Dialogue program and continues to rediscover and popularize the heritage of Wieluń’s Jewish community ever since. The group is supervised by Leader of Dialogue Agnieszka Mysakowska. During this year’s ceremony Agnieszka was joined by the representatives of local authorities and together they lit candles at the place of former synagogue to honor the memory of Wieluń’s Holocaust victims. The mayor’s speech emphasized that tragic events always happen when any kind of exclusion is allowed: “Wieluń is a town with a difficult, tragic history, but we learn from it. It is an open town, a town that strives to have friendly relations with everyone.”

photo by Szlakiem Wieluńskich Żydów

Mszana Dolna

Thanks to the efforts of Forum’s Leader of Dialogue, Urszula Antosz-Rekucka, and with the support of the town’s Mayor, on August 19th, 2020, Mszana Dolna commemorated the annihilation of its Jewish community during the Holocaust. The people gathered at the ceremony honored the memory of the Jews executed and then buried in a mass graves and then also paid tribute to Stefania and Józef Wacławik, Righteous Among the Nations who helped save Maurycy Jered during the occupation.The event was well-attended by Mszana Dolna’s residents and representatives of local government, and written up in the local media.

photo by Miasto Mszana Dolna

Dębica

On July 21, 2020, thanks to the efforts of Leader of Dialogue Ireneusz Socha Dębica commemorated the anniversary of the liquidation of the local ghetto for the fifth time. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, this year’s ceremonies of 2020 Dębica Jewish Community Memorial Day were narrowed to honoring the memory of Holocaust victims at the place of deportation to the Bełżec death camp and at the mass grave of over 500 Jews killed in Wolica Forest in the outskirts of Dębica. People gathered at the Memorial Day were joined by another Leader of Dialogue, Tomasz Malec from Sędziszów Małopolski, who traveled to Dębica to honor his town’s Jewish community, which was deported by the Nazis to Dębica ghetto.

photo by P. Sroka

Wola Michowa

Joanna Potaczek is a Leader of Dialogue from the Bieszczady Mountains region. The main goal of her activism is to commemorate the pre-war Jewish inhabitants of Wola Michowa. Last year, we awarded her with a scholarship for her „Commemorating the murder of Jews executed at the Jewish cemetery in Wola Michowa” project and she used it to renovate the cemetery, do a research in the archives and historical sources about the 150 victims murdered there in July 1942, and make information plaques commemorating the place. She has also built a wide coalition of people and institutions who support her initiatives and aid her efforts – she cooperates on a regular basis with local authorities, the Penitentiary Facility in nearby Łupków (inmates help with the maintenance works on the cemetery as a part of their rehabilitation process), Leader of Dialogue from Dukla Jacek Koszczan, as well as other local NGOs and organizations.

photo by J. Potaczek

Mszana Dolna

Thanks to the efforts of Leader of Dialogue Urszula Antosz-Rekucka the previously unmarked mass grave of several dozen Holocaust victims located on Mszana Dolna’s Jewish cemetery was permanently commemorated with a symbolic wooden matzevah monument. It was possible due to her cooperation with Fundacja “Zapomniane” (‘Forgotten’ Foundation) which mission is to search, locate, investigate and commemorate the forgotten graves of Holocaust victims, and the works at the cemetery were overseen by The Rabbinical Commission for Jewish Cemeteries in Poland. Through the extensive research of archival information and witness accounts Urszula Antosz-Rekucka was able to identify several of the victims and thus bring back the memory of their names and individual histories as well as the tragic circumstances of their deaths.

photo by Sztetl Mszana Dolna