During a summer school run by Center for Holocaust Research at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, I met Tomasz Blatt, prisoner and insurgent at Sobibór death camp and Aaron Elster, a Holocaust survivor. Since then, I have been doing everything I could not to let them or many others like them down. I feel I have a certain obligation towards them all: an obligation to tell the truth about the past, which has become a driving force of their postwar lives. Both Mr.Blatt and Mr.Elster readily admitted this obligation. When speaking to them, I heard something more – a wish for their story not only to be heard yet again, but to resonate with that what makes us human; a willingness to show empathy and solidarity with those who are weaker and a rebellion against evil.

This need is completely in line with beliefs expressed by Emmanuel Levinas, whose writings are first and most important for me in another way. From his understanding of the human subjectivity (which I understand in all its gravity) stems the need to conduct honest dialogue about the Holocaust – once that I do mostly through my work with my school students. In my opinion, Levinas offers the best answer to the question how to act in the face of evil and argues most convincingly in favor of this attitude. I consider these readings and meetings stimuli and reasons for my activism, because something important opened for me as a result. To paraphrase Mikołaj Grynberg’s book title, I know what I am doing in Auschwitz. I am listening.

I teach Polish, ethics and culture studies in Stanisław Staszic High School no.2 in Tarnowskie Góry. Over the past few years, I have been working regularly with school students through Multicultural Dialogue Club. I have led workshops (such as “Faces of Anti-Semitism”, “Synagogue on the Hassidic Route”, “Polish Reactions to the Holocaust”, “Matzevot of the Tarnogórski Jewish Cemetery”, “Modern Art and the Holocaust”, “Ghetto as Extermination Tool During World War II”, “Anatomy and Dynamics of Prejudice Based on Contemporary anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim Posters”), I coordinate interdisciplinary projects (in cooperation with Forum for Dialogue, Jewish Center in Oświęcim, POLIN museum, Open Republic Association, Silesian Museum, History Meeting House, Institute of National Remembrance). Each year, I take all freshmen students of my high school on a walking tour through Jewish Tarnowskie Góry and sophomore students to March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I try to involve school students in theater projects connected to Jewish history (school adaptation of Ida Fink’s “Morning Description”) and invite them to meetings with Holocaust survivors. I include the Holocaust in the curriculum of subjects I teach (Polish, culture studies and ethics) and in pedagogy programs I run. I share my experience with other teachers as a mentor of “School of Tolerance” program run by Center for Civic Education (Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej). My activism is meaningful to me at a number of layers. What does this activism offer others? As a teacher and educator I wish to pass on to my students the conviction that the past cannot be freely manipulated for one’s own needs but rather requires a certain courage to be discussed. It is the degree of this courage that testifies to maturity of individuals and groups.

I also want them to be aware that the history of Polish Jews is also their own history and by turning a blind eye to the history of Polish multiculturalism and the fate of Jews during World War II, they are accepting a lie about their own past. It is important to me that my students understand that lies cannot serve as foundations for anything and especially not for one’s own identity and relations to others. The essence of all my activism is to make young people realize that otherness is not a threat to them in any way. Unfortunately, my current students (wise and good people!) often believe otherwise. All the endeavors I undertake aim to alleviate their fears and help them see the beauty in multiculturalism that can enrich them as well. And I am quite successful: high school seniors tell me that my classes opened them to others and they are now more attuned to the needs of others in their actions. It also happens that the activities they participated in (projects, meetings, etc.) influence their academic and professional interests after graduation. What do I get from all this? I think that the fact that “conscience” and “witness” share etymological roots in Polish language is no accident. By gaining knowledge about Polish Jews and learning about biographies of particular individuals, in a way I become a witness to the evil they had been subjected to. As a human being, I cannot accept this evil. It is my obligation to give a human answer to the inhuman actions. What I do and how I teach about the history of Polish Jews is my personal attempt at restoring the human order. To me this seems natural and obvious. Some time ago I read about a belief stemming from Judaist tradition that an unmourned soul cannot find peace, wandering restlessly through Sheol. This thought is stuck in my head. I would very much like to believe that in a certain light my work is partially dealing with this necessary mourning.

Activism