Urszula Mróz

In the 2012 edition of School of Dialogue program, young people from Jan Kochanowski Middle School no.5 in Konin prepared an urban game for other students of the school. To prepare the event, students researched available sources and literature with the assistance of institutions working to promote local history, and met with local historians and explored sites connected to the town’s prewar Jewish community. In the course of one of these wanderings, someone from the group came up with the title for our project – “Reading the Stones”, pointing out that we broke the silence of the stones, the mute witnesses to the presence of Jewish community, and helped buildings speak. Our project won first prize in the School of Dialogue competition. In 2016, another group of middle school students prepared the scenario for and carried out the urban game “Once Upon a Time in Konin” intended for elementary schoolchildren.

Twice, Konin’s middle school students participated in the nationwide program “Memory for the Future” which is organized – among others – by Children of the Holocaust Association and the Jewish Historical Institute. The theme of the edition for 2011/2012 school year was “Polish-Jewish relations”.

The students’ task was to prepare a play to honor the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust and Prevention of Crimes against Humanity. Students staged the play “Maria’s Dream” about Magdalena Elzen nee Leszczyńska and her daughter Maria – two Jewish women from Konin, who were among the few to survive the Holocaust and return to the town after the war.
In the course of the workshops, students worked on developing both characters basing on Maria Leszczyńska-Ejzen’s book Cała jestem z tamtego świata (“I Am Completely From a Different World) and Spis Rzeczy (“Table of Contents”), a work of reportage by Hanna Krall.

School leaders were invited to participate in anti-discriminatory workshops. Women’s Week was held in the school to advocate equal rights for men and women in different spheres of life; this was done through a schoolwide campaign and various performance actions. Equality slogans were painted in the area to make local residents aware of the problem of discrimination. A Live Library was recorded, and the youngsters from local preschool attended a lesson about tolerance.