| 2018 |
Sulęcin
European Union School Complex
European Union School Complex
| 2018 |
Sulęcin is a small town in Poland’s western Lubuskie region. It used to boast a sizable Jewish community, yet in the 1930s only 80-odd Jewish residents still lived in the town. Prior to World War II Sulęcin was part of Germany and the local Jewish population was to a large extent assimilated, no different in dress or behavior from their German Protestant neighbors. This fact, along with the covering up of the town’s German and Jewish history in the Stalinist period of the 1950s, made the project work for young people involved in School of Dialogue workshops not only extremely difficult, but also to some extent ground-breaking.
Participating high school students from Sulęcin were able to track down new and previously unknown information. Their achievements included uncovering (for themselves as well as for others) a Jewish cemetery located far from the town itself as well as locating for the first time the site where Sulęcin’s synagogue once stood. The latter piece of information has not been previously published on any official website and was unknown also to the school’s teachers.
The students, for many of whom this was the first project they had ever worked on, managed to create a historical walking tour through Sulęcin, tracing the town’s German and Jewish heritage. They worked independently with the support of their school’s principal and history teachers as well as with assistance of a well-known regional historian, who not only shared his knowledge with the students, but also praised them for their discoveries and encouraged further explorations of their hometown.
The walking tour organized by the students was attended by other students from their high school.
The School of Dialogue project was ground-breaking in many aspects. It led to uncovering a forgotten history and returning it to local collective consciousness. In a sense, it was the first attempt to shed light on the overlooked pages of Sulęcin’s past, both for its participants as well as for the local community.
School: European Union School Complex
Students: students from different classes
Teachers: Damian Kierzek, Barbara Kucharska
Educators: Aneta Ceglarek, Marysia Pawlak
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.
