“It is our duty to remember our Jewish neighbors. It is a duty we can’t relinquish nor hand over. It is not only a moral obligation, but a matter of identity as well. Without it, we won’t fully understand who we are … Five hundred families vanished without a trace. These were Dębica families of countless generations. This was one-quarter of the town’s population. Let us recall a few of those families of those sacred martyrs. They were killed, but they are not unnamed; they had their lives taken from them, but we will make sure never to forget their names” said Ireneusz Socha, a Leader of Dialogue from Dębica, during the 76th anniversary of the first liquidation action in the local ghetto, just before asking the members of the audience to read out names of Dębica Jewish families who perished in the Holocaust.
Together with the mayor of the town, and the Jewish Community of Krakow, the local Leader co-organized a very moving Dębica Jewish Community Memorial Day. The program of the ceremony included three commemorations, first at the site of the former Dębica ghetto, at the monument for Dębica’s Righteous, and finally at the site of a mass grave in the Wolica forest near the town. The speakers included the representatives of local authorities, including the Mayor of Dębica, leaders of the Krakow Jewish community, and importantly descendants of Dębica Jews from Israel and the United States who came for the occasion. The ceremony concluded at the building of a synagogue where a up and coming jazz saxophonist and a Dębica local Bartłomiej Prucnal performed pieces adapted for the venue and the occasion.
