Bożena Gąsiorowska

When I met Daniel Wagner – a Belgian and an Israeli, who was engaged in the search for his ancestors, also in Żyrardów, came the idea to engage my students in cataloguing matzevot at our local Jewish cemetery, which has since become a frequently visited site. Two years of intensive work proved to be a success.

Project “Towards Cultural Dialogue” (2010-2012) required students to work in groups to manage a number of tasks, including photographic documentation of matzevot and preparation of headstones for transcription work, drawing a rough map of the Jewish cemetery and presenting the efforts in the 2012 edition of “To Bring the Memory Back” program. The project’s official gala, held on September 21, 2012, had our group and local authorities express words of gratitude to Mr. Daniel Wagner for his enormous and invaluable input. We also officially presented the map and the database to the local museum and to custodians of the Jewish cemetery.

We promoted results of our work among the Jews from abroad looking for information about their family’s burial sites in Żyrardów by passing the data on to Nolan Altman, Jewish Gen VP for Data Acquisition. High school graduates who had participated in the project at its earlier stages delivered a presentation documenting our work and its results with English commentary; Daniel Wagner’s input as advocate for preservation of Jewish heritage in Poland was also presented, with restoration of the Jewish cemetery in Zduńska Wola as an example of his successful initiative and another presentation about Mr. Wagner’s family ties to Żyrardów followed. The meeting was held in a heritage building of Merchants’ Social Club ended with a presentation about the Foundation for Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ) with special emphasis on “To Bring Memory Back” program. In the afternoon, all interested parties were invited to visit the Jewish cemetery, where guided tours were offered by local youth, Daniel Wagner, Justyna Żak and Bożena Gąsiorowska.