"To Bring Memory Back" edition 2006-2007
Szkoła Podstawowa im.T. Kościuszki
Who are we
Tadeusz Kościuszko Primary School is located in a small town (population: 1350) in Masovia region. The number of students is 198. There are many circles of interest and everyone willing to develop his (or her) knowledge and abilities is free to do it. We do realize many projects; gather information about the past of our community, its history and tradition. Our group is small, composed of the students of the 5th and 6th grades.
Why we do this project
We do the project because we want to know better the Jewish culture, which is completely strange (and therefore very interesting) to us. In order to express our opinions on some mater we need to learn about it first, and so we want to develop our knowledge of the Jewish tradition. We want to break the stereotypes and to learn tolerance.
Jewish community in our town
Today there are no Jews living in Miedzna and in the region, but before the war they constituted a major part of the local population. The statistics from the old books tell us that the number of Jews was constantly growing till 1939. In 1870 there were 92 Jews living in Miedzna, in 1874 there were already 145, in 1890 - 100, in 1921 - 400, and in 1939 – 600.
What we do in the project
- We interviewed the oldest residents of Miedzna and the vicinity; we looked through old documents, gathered and elaborated information on local Jewish population. We learned about where and how they lived, what were their occupations, how family celebrations looked like (weddings, funerals), how did the kids live, what was their fate during the war.
- We prepared a map „Jews in Miedzna in 1918-39” where we marked the streets, houses, shops, synagogue, mikvah and commercial buildings.
- We found the building of an old, wooden synagogue now inhabited by one of Miedzna’s families.
- We learned about the Jewish calendar, most important celebrations and traditions connected with them.
- We tried to write using Hebrew alphabet and learned basic words.
- We prepared some meals characteristic to Jewish cuisine, i.a. Haman ears. We treated fellow students and school workers with them.
- We learned about Janusz Korczak – devoted children caretaker, we watched a movie about him, we wrote a letter to him.
- We visited lapidarium in Węgrow, learned about its history and cleaned it up.
- We made some photos and frottages which were displayed on an exhibition in our school.
- We organized meetings for students of 4th-5th grade where we passed on our knowledge. Together we learned to show respect to the past, tolerance towards different belief, we saw something the others could not.
- We prepared wall gazettes, posters (our group and its aims, Jewish calendar, Jewish celebrations, Hebrew alphabet and words, Janusz Korczak, Remember about cemeteries…, Easter and Passover, David Rubinowicz and his life) to pass on our knowledge to others.
- On a special meeting we spoke about danger which is brought by wars. We learned about Irena Sendlerowa and read the Diary of David Rubinowicz together.
- We participated in regional workshops organized by FODZ. During them we gained new abilities, exchanged experiences in order to organize our work on realizing the project more efficiently, make it more interesting and quicker.
- We met with the Director of Fight and Martyrdom Museum in Treblinka – Mr. Edward Kopówka. We heard much about history of Jews inhabiting our region, about their customs. We learned also of history of the place where our guest works every day.
What we are going to do next
We are looking forward to met the director of The Struggle and Martyrdom Museum in Treblinka, because that’s where Janusz Korczak, the author of many children books was murdered. We want to explore his life and his books, and at the end we will pay a visit to Treblinka to see with our own eyes the place where so many innocent people were killed during the war.
Who is helping us
The Project is being coordinated by Mrs Marzena Orzel and Mrs Anna Salach. We are in constant contact with the Director of the Treblinka Museum- M. Edward Kopowka.
What are we proud of
We are proud of the fact that we – such young people – acquired so much new information and were able to pass it on. We did not have many books because there are almost none published. Alone amidst the elders we rediscovered the history and this was the most enjoyable part of the project. We know more about people who lived in Miedzna and its vicinity before the war. Good we did speak with the elders. Now we know that some information could just vanish. Definitely we look on people and the world around us in a different way.
Most important we know we still want to work. All our activities are currently being described and supplemented with photos. In the future everybody could see what and how was done because our Memorial Book is still being written. We prepare a multimedia presentation and we will give it to Treblinka Museum because we want the others to see how we brought the memory back.
We’re happy our project was noticed and it was a Project of the Month.
Next year we will still look for information.
