Commemoration of the 82nd Anniversary of the Liquidation of the Będzin Ghetto

events Programme

The Brama Cukermana Foundation initiated the commemorations of the 82nd anniversary of the liquidation of the Będzin Ghetto in 2025, carried out as part of the Dzielnica Kamienna (Kamienna District) project. The program included both an official ceremony and an extensive educational component. Participants included representatives of the city authorities, the Jewish Community of Katowice, international guests, and residents of the region. During the ceremony, letters, testimonies, and recollections of ghetto survivors were read, including those of Chajka Klinger, Dawid Klejman, and members of the Cukierman and Lustiger families, and the event was recorded and made available online.

A central moment of the gathering was the public reading of survivors’ memoirs and testimonies, presented to such a wide audience for the first time. Materials entrusted directly by the families of witnesses, including Chajka Klinger, Dawid Klejman, and the Cukierman and Lustiger families, gave the event an intimate and deeply moving character. A permanent element of the commemoration was also the reading of victims’ names and the placing of memorial stones at the monument, creating an increasingly tangible testimony of remembrance over the years.

Following the anniversary ceremony, educational and participatory activities took place. Participants took part in thematic workshops, including meetings inspired by the Ghetto Fighters’ House and workshops for children focused on green forms of commemoration. Those attending included residents of Będzin and the surrounding region, students of the University of Silesia, representatives of cultural institutions and social organizations, as well as descendants of Zagłębie Jews, among them the Fishel family—four sisters who traveled from the USA and Canada. The gathering confirmed the importance of Będzin as a place where remembrance remains a living, shared process based on dialogue and responsibility.

The anniversary commemorations formed part of a broader program of activities carried out in 2025 within the Dzielnica Kamienna (Kamienna District) project, initiated by the Brama Cukermana Foundation. In addition to the commemorative ceremony itself, the project included thematic walking tours of the district, artistic and photographic workshops, a popular-science conference devoted to the history of the ghetto and its contemporary contexts, as well as conversations with residents of Kamienna documenting the area’s local memory. All of these activities aimed not only to recall the tragic events of 1942–1943, but also to foster a deeper understanding of the district today, to work with its history, and to involve the local community in a shared process of remembrance.
📸 Roman Łuszczki