| 2018 |
Przeworsk
Władysław Jagiełło High School
Władysław Jagiełło High School
| 2018 |
An average human being is not particularly interested in the world. According to Ryszard Kapuściński, experiencing the world requires extra effort that we sometimes attempt to spare ourselves. We develop skills to serve the contrary, so that we are „looking in order not to see and listening in order not to hear.” Sometimes this “world” is restricted to the limited space of one’s hometown which may hide many secrets. Something completely different happened in Przeworsk, a small town in Podkarpacie region with a population of over 15000. These include a plaque commemorating Jews murdered in the Holocaust at the town’s bus station, where the Jewish cemetery had once been, and the mikveh building at Słowackiego street.
For School of Dialogue project, high school students from King Władysław Jagiełło Vocational and High School Complex undertook the challenging task of uncovering the forgotten history of local Jews. Just a few silent traces in the town’s space testify to the fact that before World War II, Przeworsk had a sizable Jewish population of over 1500 residents.
By participating in the project and with the support of Forum’s educators, local high schoolers decided to include these visible and invisible traces of memory in an open interactive story and prepared an urban game with a series of additional events.
For the purposes of their game, students collected interesting facts from the lives of local Jewish families, the first of which arrived in the town in the 16th century. Over time, Przeworsk became an influential Hassidic center, with many Jews working in local commerce and crafts. Right before the outbreak of World War II, 21.4% of the local population was Jewish.
Basia Rosenberg, who kept a journal prior to the outbreak as well as during World War II, became the protagonist of the urban game. Her diary, found by chance in 1958, served as a fascinating reference point for the local youth, offering a glimpse into the past from the perspective of a fellow teenager.
In the most dramatic moments of Przeworsk’s history, Basia recorded the following moving testimony: “Yesterday all Jews were rounded up and ordered to sweep the city. (…) Everyone’s beards and sidelocks were cut off. My daddy is afraid to take a step outside. In the afternoon we heard the sound of shooting (…) Unfortunately, it was at our synagogue. The building, which had stood there for 400 years, has now been burnt down. With my own eyes I saw the new roof, fixed just this year, collapse.”
Game preparation required inquisitive studies of historical sources. A meeting with local activist and witness of history Andrzej Świtalski, who pointed to specific sites and answered all their questions, gave participants a lot of valuable information. Most importantly, Mr.Świtalski told them about Jewish shops in the main square, the market next to the City Hall, the tenement house at ul.Kościelna and about the neighboring Jewish houses, including the one at ul.Piłsudskiego 7, where Sussman Weissberg kept his registry books.
All these sites were included in the itinerary of the students’ educational walk. Second-year students from Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński Middle School No.1 and third-year students from St. Albert Middle School in Żurawiczki were invited to participate in the game.
The game ended with a recap session – diplomas and awards sponsored by the local authorities were handed out. All attendees, including project participants and their guests, who had delved into studying the fascinating local “world”, were treated to a meal consisting of traditional and contemporary Jewish delicacies including apple and honey cake, onion pastries, hallah bread, strudel, matzoh, dried dates, Israeli salad, hummus and spice cookies. The curiosity and appetite for learning about the world were whetted in both literal and metaphoric sense.
I very much like the idea of making people aware of the Jewish history of their towns, as most of our society judges not only Jews, but also minorities in general by arbitrary stereotypes. It’s worthwhile to learn to look from a different perspective, so that you can actually form your own independent opinion.
Workshops participant
School: Władysław Jagiełło High School
Students: class Ic
Teacher: Małgorzata Jakubowska
Educators: Magdalena Ogieniewska-Małecka, Joanna Sarnecka
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.
