In the difficult sphere of Polish/Jewish relations, where the memories of Christian and Jewish families clash against national identities, stereotypes, and decades of political abuses of history, thorough research of history is key for dialogue. In the last twenty years, Poland has seen the creation of some of the most important works tracing the history of the Holocaust on Polish territories, which are oftentimes catalysts for serious discussions and rebuilding of bonds between the current residents of Poland and Polish Jews and their descendants.

This is why we are deeply concerned about the circumstances of the trial against Professor Barbara Engelking and Professor Jan Grabowski for the research they published in Night without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland and the accompanying attempts to discredit these two eminent scholars. As an organization which for over twenty years has been working to restore the memory of Polish Jews, predominately in small towns and villages, we fear that the trial will have a censoring effect on young and local researchers working with no support network. This is an attack on the freedom of scholarly research of Jewish history in Poland, and as a result, it will destroy the hard won advances in Polish/Jewish dialogue.

Complex historical reality should not be decided by courts. The fragment of Night without End that is at the source of the accusation is based on a Survivor’s testimony, a type of account which should always be heard with empathy and humility. The fact that information thus uncovered are uncomfortable for Poles should encourage us to even more in-depth and sincere research of history and inspire us, Poles, to reflect on the ways we perceive ourselves. Identity and national pride that require legal protection and deter criticism with a perspective of severe punishment must be very fragile indeed. We believe that Polish identity need not be threatened by a frank facing of the past.

In the week when we commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, we invited participants and recipients of our programs to Zoom on Forum meetings on Holocaust memory.

The guest of meeting for international audience was Leon Weintraub, a Holocaust survivor born in 1926 in Łódź, who was willing to share his testimony with us. During the war, Leon Weintraub and his family were deported from the Łódź ghetto in 1944 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, where they were separated from their relatives. After the war he began medical studies in Germany, and in 1950 returned to Poland, where he worked as a gynecologist. After 1968, he was forced to end his career in Poland and emigrated to Sweden, where he still lives today. In addition to the extremely difficult account of the war, Mr. Leon shared with the participants his remarkable story of rebuilding ties with the place associated with his family. In 2004, he reconnected with his mother’s hometown, Dobra, by meeting with students from the School of Dialogue (we invite you to watch a film depicting this meeting).

The second meeting was devoted to the role of Auschwitz in the memory of the Holocaust. The guest of the meeting was Anna Sommer-Schneider, a researcher from Georgetown University in Washington, DC and a long-time Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum guide. During the meeting, participants had the opportunity to hear about the changes in the exhibitions, as well as about the motivations and types of sensitivity that accompany visitors to the Museum from all over the world. The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss the narrative that the institution builds through its museum and commemorative practices. In view of the passing of the last witnesses, we also considered how to work with the attitudes of young people coming to the Museum.

The fall semester of the School of Dialogue program has come to an end. It was a big challenge due to epidemiological situation and the measures implemented, we had to give up on in-person meetings between educators and students during workshops. We made every effort to ensure that online workshops keep up the quality. Today we can breathe a sigh of relief because we can see that this year’s difficulties related to the pandemic stimulated creativity in solving them.

We are glad that students not only prepared a mandatory virtual tour following the footsteps of the local Jewish community and promoted it among inhabitants of their towns, but also undertook many additional activities. Students initiated important commemorative actions, organized online meetings for town inhabitants and set up fanpages about the Jewish history of their towns.

With a serious sense of responsibility they decided not to visit their grandparents or elderly neighbors; for the same reason, they could not organize a walking tour. Nevertheless, they kept researching about the forgotten history of the pre-war Jewish community. Educators and Leaders of Dialogue supported their efforts and shared knowledge about their town history, gave advice about commemoration projects and the use of archival documentation or inventory of cemeteries. Some students also managed to get in touch with the descendants of Jews from their town.

We are very pleased that Forum educators, who are used to a completely different conditions of work with young people, have proven that even during remote workshops they are able to pass on positive energy to students and inspire them to act. Even if they were often hundreds of kilometers away from the students, they also assisted them in research and ideas through dedicated groups on Facebook and via Messenger.

We have a difficult but exciting task ahead of us in evaluating projects and selecting this year’s nominations and finalists. We will announce the winners during the official School of Dialogue Gala 2020.

Forum for Dialogue has been expanding its offer for teachers involved in teaching about the history of Jews in Poland. We organize workshops and seminars to broaden their knowledge and a set of educational tools concerning this subject.

During the online seminar “Who Will Write Our History – teaching about Polish/Jewish heritage” we hosted teachers from the Lodz province. Together we reflected on using the documentary “Who Will Write Our History” in the classroom, and how to talk about the history and culture of Polish Jews by focusing on individual, local experiences. The participants, with the support of educators, had a chance to search for materials in the Ringelblum Archive, as well as other archives concerning their town or the nearest vicinity.

One of the highlights of the seminar was the meeting with a local activist – Miroslaw Skrzypczyk, teacher and Leader of Dialogue from Szczekociny, who talked about how he understands the school’s mission: as a place that is a catalyst for change in a town, also in regard to the memory of the Jewish heritage.

We also organized a workshop for teachers from all over Poland, which concerned the use of the online archives collecting Jewish history. This workshop was led by Julia Machnowska, a historian specializing in archival research, and project coordinator at Forum for Dialogue. During the workshop the participants had an opportunity to see up close the collections of the most important museums, archives and information centers in Poland, Germany, Israel and the United States. They learned more about research results that can be found in the databases without leaving home. They were introduced to ways of finding pre-war photographs, documents, recorded testimonies, maps, genealogical sources, which are available at your fingertips thanks to virtual tools. We hope that these tools will prove useful in educating young people and engaging them in activities aimed at restoring the memory of Jewish communities in their towns.

This past year was difficult for all. For us at the Forum, it was a year of rapid changes of plans, switching to remote work, redesigning programs to fit the online context, but it was also a year of embracing new possibilities. For an organization that believes in the power of dialogue and face-to-face conversations that require time, these new Vovid-19 working conditions was a real challenge. In our efforts to adapt to the new situation, we focused on making sure to continue realizing our ultimate goals, which stem directly from our mission, rather than simply moving it simply online. Today, as we look back on 2020, we can proudly say that we have succeeded.

Zoom in on the Forum
To maintain the connections with our international network  of friends, we started Forum’s “Zoom in on the Forum” series of meetings for Polish and international recipients of our programs, dedicated to Polish/Jewish dialogue and featuring scholars, experts, local activists, and eyewitnesses to history. In the past months we had almost 50 online meetings, with a total audience of 600 people!

Leaders of Dialogue Regional Groups
The previous year saw the launch of 8 regional groups with 79 Leaders of Dialogue joining. During the time of the pandemic, these regional groups offered members a way to network and support one another in regional endeavors. Apart from meetings dedicated to panning and diagnosis of local needs, the regional groups organized online workshops and trainings responding to the needs identified by group members. These sessions, happening both online and in real time, included meetings with experts, skills trainings, and micro study visits (13 in total!). The groups are already planning new activities!

Leaders of Dialogue Grant Competitions
This fall we have organized an online training session for Leaders of Dialogue planning to apply for Forum grants and scholarships. We received 21 applications containing plans for projects commemorating and educating about local Jewish heritage and for individual development of Leaders wanting to learn more about Polish/Jewish relations, be more effective in preserving local heritage, or maintain relations with descendants of local Jews. We’re looking forward to the next stage: reviewing the applications to select the winning entries!

Programs for Teachers
In 2020 we were able to deepen our connections with teachers interested in learning more about Jewish history and heritage education in Poland. As a way to support these teachers, we have developed opportunities for them to gain knowledge about Jewish history and culture, as well as about contemporary Jewish life. We organized online day-long seminars, individual sessions, and meetings with experts attended by a total of 70 teachers. We’ve also launched a dedicated newsletter highlighting educational opportunities and events organized by Forum and other institutions, as well as available educational materials and toolkits on Polish/Jewish history.

Moving School of Dialogue Online
As result of the Covid-19 pandemic we were forced to move the School of Dialogue Gala planned for March 2020 online, but the virtual event had over 3000 participants! Similarily, in the fall we begun a new semester of the School of Dialogue program also online. Our experts developed a new system of effective online education, which inspires students to discover their local Jewish history. We were shocked by the sheer creativity of the projects students crated online and the tenacity in uncovering traces of Jewish heritage in their towns. Stay tuned for the upcoming updates on the achievements of the School of Dialogue participants, on the incredible work that they did, and awards presented to the best commemorative projects!

Scholarly Advisory Board
In 2020, Forum for Dialogue set up its Scholarly Advisory Board, which includes nine leading experts in their respective academic fields, chaired by Michał Bilewicz, Forum’s former VP and the Director of the University of Warsaw’s Center for Research on Prejudice.

We’re entering 2021 with new energy and ideas for how to continue with the growth and development of our programs dedicated to Polish/Jewish dialogue.