"To Bring Memory Back" edition 2007-2008
PLUSKOWESY- Middle School No.1
Who are we
Middle School No. 1 in Pluskowesy, we are members of the KLIO History Circle of Interest.
Our main field of interest is our region: its culture, its past, its architecture. We are also interested in Jewish-related subjects; including the prewar history of Jewish community of Chelmza and its vicinity.
Why we do this project
We do realize our project because we want to:- remain open to other opinions and religions, to learn tolerance;
- to learn and to promote among our fellow students the knowledge of a very interesting and little known Jewish culture;
- To make our generation realize the fact that the Jews were once living together with our ancestors, were their neighbors, friends, and perhaps even foes. We want to discover the truth and to reveal it to our entourage; our fellow students.
Jewish community in our town
Today in Chelmza – a town located 5 km from Pluskowesy - village where our school was built – there are no Jews at all. But before the World War II a Jewish community – although rather small - existed in Chelmza. The Jews were mostly traders; they had their little shops and small workshops, living in harmony with the other inhabitants of the town. They had a synagogue, destroyed by Nazis during the war.
During the war Jewish women were imprisoned in Bocien and Szerokopas. They were transported (or forced to walk all the way) from OK Stutthof.
What we do in the project
Our goal is:
- To discover the history of Polish Jews through books, newspapers, and Internet.
- To explore the Jewish culture;
- To learn about Jewish cuisine, music, art, customs, cycle of life of the Jewish communities, and do on, through organizing art contests, cooking classes, and watching movies.
- To initiate the activities leading to the commemoration of the Jewish inhabitants of Chelmza by placing a memorial tablet on the building standing on the place where the synagogue used to be, and another on the local Jewish cemetery.
- To organize a school trip to Cracow and take part in the March of Living depending on how well the fundraising will go).
- Take care of the burial place of the Jewish women- prisoners of OK camp in Stutthof, located near the school grounds, in the villages of Grodno and Dzwierzno.
What we are going to do next
Within the framework of our project we are carrying out the interviews with people who were children during the wartime and kept memories of the Jewish female prisoners.
We have visited Mr Lech Gorecki who was 8 at the beginning of the war. Our witness had a wonderful memory and the ability to pass his knowledge to us, with many interesting details of his life and his encounters with Jewish women. We took some pictures (see our gallery) and recorded the entire interview. It will be a base for an article which will be published in local newspaper.
Mr Gorecki also gave us hints on who else could enrich our knowledge of the story of the murdered Jewish women.
We participated in a regional training in Bydgoszcz, on November 24, 2007. Thanks to the training we learned how to find sponsors, how to plan our actions, how to promote the idea of “To Bring Memory Back” program. The animators took pictures- and you can watch them in our gallery.
One of our actions is the commemoration of the Jewish inhabitants of Chelmza by placing memorial tablets. Our allies in this enterprise are the poviat starosty in Torun and the Town Office in Chelmza.
Who is helping us
We managed to find three sponsors; inhabitants of Chelmza. After we presented them our program, they offered us financial help. Part of their money will serve to make our trip to Warsaw (for the national presentation of the program) possible.
The members of the Parents Council of our school are not unfamiliar as well with the idea of „To Bring Memory Back” program. Thanks to their financial support we were able to participate in the regional training in Bydgoszcz “for a single penny”. Our Parents know what we do and fully support our activity.
