Places of Remembering and Forgetting

Together with our partner organization the Urban Memory Foundation, we will employ the mechanisms of civic engagement and will work through tensions around the revitalization and commemoration of two sites in Poland – the former Jewish cemetery on Gwarna Street in Wrocław and the former Nazi concentration camp in Płaszów, Kraków. FestivALT/CentrALT together with local partners will lead and coordinate activities in Kraków. To this end, we will conduct a social and information campaign for local residents about the Jewish heritage in their neighborhoods, and raise civic competences of local youth – two peer groups in Wrocław and Kraków cooperating with each other – who will conduct and record conversations with the key stakeholders, especially local residents. We will make every effort to create conditions for building mutual trust and dialogue. The purpose is to provide foundations for developing a common vision for revitalization and commemoration of the two sites of Jewish heritage. The results and conclusions from the activities in both cities will open a new chapter in the dialogue with local authorities and will allow the creation of a toolkit and good practices recommended elsewhere in Polish cities dealing with similar challenges.