| 2019 |
Przasnysz
Henryk Sienkiewicz Primary School No. 2
Henryk Sienkiewicz Primary School No. 2
| 2019 |
In prewar Przasnysz, 65% of the residents were Jewish, however it seems like their existence has been almost completely forgotten. No Jewish heritage sites survive, except for a few residential homes once inhabited by Jews. The cemetery, now completely devoid of headstones, is the only site where the town’s Jews are commemorated. Also, the local History Museum offers very little information about this community.
Seven- and eighth0graders from Przasznysz had a huge impact on public memory of local Jews. They invited not only their school’s principal, teachers and fellow students, but also the town’s mayor, members of the Town Council, as well as employees of the Municipal Office and the Historical Museum to join their tour. They were also able to convince local authorities to sponsor plaques erected on the sites of the now nonexistent synagogue, Jewish cemetery and a former Jewish school, which had been located on the site of their school’s very own sports field. In their school, they organized an exhibition of archival photographs and their own artworks related to Przasnysz’s Jewish past.
They also wrote poems and a song on the topic and held a workshop on Jewish culture for younger students. Students were also able to publish information booklets on Jewish-related sites in Przasnysz. To gather information, they read a Yizkor book that had been published in the United States in the 1970s as well as sought out descendants of local Jews by contacting the group Friends of Jews from Przasnysz. Members of this group provided archival photographs for the in-school exhibition. Additionally, project participants attended lectures prepared especially for them by employees of a local museum and faculty at a Boston university (online). They also conducted cleanup works at the Jewish cemetery.
School: Henryk Sienkiewicz Primary School No. 2
Honorable mention: Winner at 2019 School of Dialogue Gala in the “Impact on Local Community” category
Students: 7th and 8th year
Teacher: Kamila Bakuła
Educators: Dorota Cieślik, Szymon Gotowski
Project cofinanced thanks to the generosity of Friends of the Forum, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and individual donors and institutions from Poland and abroad supporting Forum for Dialogue.
In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting the School of Dialogue educational program. Through recovering the assets of the victims of the Holocaust, the Claims Conference enables organizations around the world to provide education about the Shoah and to preserve the memory of those who perished.
