Series of educational sessions

events Programme

Urban Memory Foundation organised a series of educational field activities in Złotoryja, Wrocław and Oława focused on the documentation, interpretation and protection of Jewish material heritage. The programme centred on matzevot and their fragments, many of which survive today in secondary use within walls, pavements and post war infrastructure. Through workshops, study visits and community events, participants were introduced to practical methods of identifying, documenting and protecting dispersed heritage elements while reflecting on the ethics of care and responsibility towards sites connected with former Jewish communities.

The first activity took place in Złotoryja in cooperation with the Society of Lovers of the Złotoryja Land. Secondary and primary school students participated in a field workshop at the site of a destroyed and overgrown Jewish cemetery. Following a historical introduction by Roman Gorzkowski and a presentation on Jewish funerary traditions by Aleksander Schwarz, participants engaged in hands on inventory work, documenting matzevah fragments, assessing their condition and attempting preliminary readings of surviving inscriptions. The workshop also introduced contemporary approaches to care based commemoration and local memory work.

The second session was held at the Old Jewish Cemetery on Ślężna Street in Wrocław and formed part of the “Reconnecting after March 1968” programme organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland. During a guided heritage walk led by Renata Krakowska-Wilkoszewska, participants explored the layered Jewish, German and Polish history of the cemetery. The visit also included a presentation of digital inventory methods and 3D models of gravestones, demonstrating how new technologies can support heritage preservation and research.

The third event, titled “Return of the Matzevah,” took place in Oława and focused on a marble gravestone discovered in 2025 and later identified as belonging to Moritz Bruck, who had originally been buried in the town’s Jewish cemetery. Through cooperation between the grassroot initiative Spod Ziemi Patrzy Breslau, the Jewish Community of Wrocław, local activists and Urban Memory Foundation, the provenance of the gravestone was confirmed and the gravestone was returned to the cemetery. The event combined presentations on the history of the local Jewish community, the biography of Moritz Bruck and the wider phenomenon of post war reuse of Jewish and German gravestones in Poland. It served both as a symbolic act of restitution and as an educational example of how inventory based research can support heritage recovery and community engagement.

Across all three locations, the programme promoted participatory documentation, community involvement and care based approaches to heritage protection. By connecting field research, education and local memory activism, the activities strengthened awareness of dispersed Jewish heritage and encouraged long term engagement with places that continue to shape the cultural landscape of contemporary Poland.

Photos: Andrzej Skobejko, Aga Jabłońska.