“When I started doing this work twenty odd years after the war – not much time had passed since it all happened. And here everything was already gone. Including the memory.”
Adam Bartosz, Tarnów, April 1, 2019
The Video library
This page contains short video clips so you can sample the interviews. Click LEARN MORE or the person’s name to view more information and to watch the full interview.
More interviews coming soon!
Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN, Lublin
Witek Dąbrowski was one of the first rescuers of memory that I met when I first visited Poland in 2005 and he gave me and my parents a tour of Jewish Lublin.
I have known Krzysztof Banach since 2015 when he gave a group of mine a tour of the State Museum at Majdanek; we quickly became friends. It was a year or two later when I discovered our shared history.
Tomek Cebulski's deep understanding of Holocaust remembrance comes in large part from his vast experience meeting survivors and accompanying them both to Auschwitz-Birkenau and to their ancestral towns, as well as from his keen observational powers.
Galicia Jewish Museum, Kraków
Anna Wencel talks about her first introduction to Jews at age eight when she wandered into a Jewish cemetery and told her grandmother about it. She also introduces us to the important book she helped bring to publication, Janka's Diary.
Dariusz Stola is a historian and a professor at the Institute for Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences.
Jarosław Zatorski and Piotr Krawczyk
When Jarolsław Zatorski was the mayor of Chmielnik, a small town where my great-grandmother Syma Płuciennik was born, he decided that the Jews of the town needed to be remembered.
Jasło
Inga Marczyńska discusses Holocaust education in Poland, the influence of her grandfather who used to cook Jewish food, connecting with descendants of Jews murdered from near where she lives and her feeling that the Jews are an integral part of the land of Poland.
Brzesko
Anna Brzyska talks about her entry into remembrance of the Jews of Brzesko through cemetery clean-up undertaken with her whole family.
Brama Cukermana, Będzin
Piotr and Karolina Jakoweńko discuss how they discovered the Cukerman shtibel; the creation of their organization, Brama Cukermana and how poverty is the best conservator.
Stanisław Obirek touches on many fascinating subjects during our conversation including: growing up ten minutes from the death camp Bełżec knowing nothing about the Jews, and his about first encounter with Jews through literature.
Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw
Anna Przybyszewska is a thoroughly no-nonsense person. She has fascinating stories from over twenty years of experience helping people with family history (genealogy) research for the Jewish Historical Institute.
Zduńska Wola
In this interview, Kamila shared her frustrations related to commemorating the Jews of Zdunska Wola and her work as a genealogist. She admits to being naive when she started…
Łuków
I met Krzysztof Czubaszek in his office in Warsaw, though his work involves remembering the Jews of Łuków. I was struck, during our conversation, by his unbending dedication to the remembrance of these people, even in the face of some opposition.
Museum of Mazovian Jews, Płock
Former journalist Rafał Kowalski describes his worldwide search for Jewish survivors from Płock and his deep connections to them and their descendants. I love how Rafał describes having a dybbuk inside him that propelled him forward to travel the world and interview those survivors before it was too late.
Radom
Zbysiek is an extremely warm person who is deeply engaged in Jewish remembrance. I was moved by his description of the remembrance ceremony he does with his students every year, in which they read the names of those who were imprisoned in the Radom ghetto.
Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN, Lublin
Tomek Pietrasiewicz is the founder and director of Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN. He is one of Poland's pioneers in Jewish remembrance. Art is a key element of the commemoration work…
Tarnów
Adam Bartosz talks about the many initiatives he has championed to remember the Jews of Tarnów and his point of view on Jewish remembrance as an ethnographer.
Nowy Zmigród
Jerzy (Jurek) Dębiec describes—in his low key manner—his fascination with the Jewish cemetery in Nowy Żmigród and Jewish history in general, as well as his efforts to preserve it.
Dukla
Jacek has an amazing collection of Judaica (Jewish ceremonial objects) which he uses to educate people about the Jewish past of Dukla. He has initiated a number of activities to this end.
Bochnia
Iwona Zawidska's interest in Jewish culture was sparked by her walks around Kazimierz, the former Jewish quarter in Kraków. She describes the different ways she has explored this interest, as well as her relationships with others who have similar passions.
Dębica
I was heartbroken when we had to go to audio only for this interview. When we were in the forest, at the site of a Jewish mass grave, Irek described a time when his father had pointed to an old tree there and said, "This tree is a witness."
In our discussion Professor Jonathan Webber discussed, among other things: The need for "cultural diplomacy" in advancing Jewish remembrance; "a cacophony of memory strategies" and "the presence of absence."
Białystok
Kamil grew up in Jedwabne, a town with a very dark history of non-Jewish Poles murdering their Jewish neighbors. In our conversation, Kamil reveals his reluctance to admit where he was from…
Białystok
For years, Mariusz Sokołowski has been engaged in restoring the memory of the Jews of Bialystok and Wasilków. Mariusz is a resident of Podlasie. Mariusz Sokołowski is the 2023 winner of the POLIN Museum award.
Białowieża
I love Kasia's exuberance and passion for remembrance of the Jews of Białowieża. The amount of work she has done in commemorating the Jews of Białowieża is phenomenal.
Otwock
Zbigniew Nosowski has an interesting perspective on Jewish remembrance: He is very much motivated by his Catholic faith, perhaps the only one of my interviewees to express this as their impetus for Jewish remembrance.
Marek Edelman Dialogue Center, Łódz
Joanna Podolska talks about growing up in Communist Poland not knowing anything about the Jews and her path from there to becoming a journalist for Gazeta Wyborcza to her current role as the Director of the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center.
Lublin
Monika Krzykała was first exposed to information about Lublin's Jewish population when she picked a copy of a memoir by a Lublin Jew out of her parents' bookshelf: "Mój Lublin" by Roza Fiszman Sznajdman. She is part of Brama Grodzka's education team.
Lublin
Monika Tarajko has been dealing with the protection of Jewish cemeteries in the Lublin region for several years. Her mother grew up in Lublin not far from where the Yeshiva used to be. Monika is an education specialist at the Grodzka Gate–NN Theater Centre.
Zamość
Within the first few minutes of meeting teacher Marek Kołcon, his passion for bringing back the memory of the Jews of Zamość is obvious. When I asked him what he had been up to during his vacation, he told me about books he had been reading…
Rzeszów
Professor Wierzbieniec has created an amazing event—really a series of events: "The International Holocaust Remembrance Days in Rzeszów and Podkarpacie," during five days every January.
Biecz
Elżbieta graciously and warmly welcomed us to the renovated library of which she is the Director before it reopened to the public. The combination of the restored Jewish art on the walls and the modern facilities made this former synagogue a very inviting place.
People, Not Numbers
Dariusz Popiela is amazing. Using what he calls his "modest sporting career" (he is an Olympic Kayaker) to draw attention to Jews who were murdered in various places in Poland, he created an organization called, "People, not Numbers."
Rybnik
I just love these two. You will see, when you watch them together, how much they love each other. Małgosia, the mom, started bringing Magda to Jewish cemeteries when she was a little girl.
Kraków Jewish Culture Festival
Janusz Makuch, the Director of the Kraków Jewish Culture Festival, which he founded in 1988, discusses his focus on living memory, being a Polish Zionist and, of course, the Kraków Jewish Culture Festival.
Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN, Lublin
Emil Majuk is a cheerful and modest guy, who's always willing to lend a helping hand and almost always sees the positive in people. He is the founder of Shtetl Routes…
Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN, Lublin
Teresa Klimowicz is one of several people I interviewed (along with Agata Radkowska and Krzysztof Banach) who are founding members of an organization called, "The Well of Memory" that works to preserve Jewish memory in Lublin.
Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN, Lublin
Tadeusz, a historian and genealogist, has helped me find lots of Lublin ancestors and for that I am very grateful. In this interview he discusses the different types of people who come to him for genealogy help.
Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN, Lublin
Agata is one of several people whom I spoke to who mentioned the late Robert Kuwalek—to whom this archive is dedicated—as an inspiration for her work in Jewish remembrance.
Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN, Lublin
Piotr Nazaruk describes himself as a Yiddish Enthusiast. He’s one of the few people at Brama Grodzka who has a working knowledge of Yiddish.
Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN, Lublin
Joanna Zętar has worked at Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN almost since its beginning, lending her expertise as an art historian. She wrote a book called, "Lublin that No Longer Exists," which chronicles places that have disappeared from the cityscape.