2025Get email notification for articles from Ofer Aderet FollowApr 23 nothing distinguishes this typical two-story stone building on the outskirts of the southern Polish city of Bedzin its reputation has spread by word of mouth among tour guides and youth delegation groups traveling to Poland Thousands of Israeli teenagers have already visited Forever scarred by years of German occupation innocent boys and girls in the Polish city of Będzin saw a world of violence A new exhibit curated by Northern Arizona University undergraduates that tells the story of young people in Będzin before during and after the Holocaust will open Sept we often encounter survivors as people who could be our grandparents but most of them were teenagers when they experienced the Holocaust,” said Björn Krondorfer director of NAU’s Martin-Springer Institute we focus on the struggle of young people; we hope that our audiences The exhibit, titled “Through the Eyes of Youth: Life and Death in the Będzin Ghetto,” is the result of a three-semester undergraduate research project offered by the Martin-Springer Institute Under the faculty mentorship of Krondorfer and Martin Kalb 12 students from various backgrounds and academic disciplines conducted historical research created the narratives and proposed the initial design the exhibit shares the struggles of the youth in Będzin who grew up amid tragedy while still trying to find small joys in life The students chose to focus on stories of the youth in hopes of resonating with a young audience in a memorable way Będzin is the former home of Holocaust survivor Doris Martin who founded the institute at NAU with her husband Ralph Martin in 2000 “We thought that creating an undergraduate research project on this ghetto would honor her and our students would learn the true meaning of the Holocaust through a case study,” Krondorfer said The exhibit is divided into four major time periods and follows seven young people from prewar life to harsh living conditions in the ghetto to deportations to Auschwitz and finally who the students interviewed during the project four of the students traveled to Washington for a paid internship in the summer of 2013 at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to conduct additional research and gather resources for the exhibit An opening reception for the public is scheduled for 4:30 to 5:30 p.m The exhibit will be open to the public from 8 a.m Monday through Friday and will be on display through Dec the exhibit will travel throughout Arizona to continue sharing the personal stories of the seven young people The exhibit is designed for display at schools Get The NAU Review email delivered to your inbox Sign up for The NAU Review now! The NAU Review is published by the NAU Communications If you have a news tip, share it with us! „It seems that I am writing for the last time” I am not allowed to go out and I am going crazy at home The city is waiting with bated breath and waiting is the worst thing of all I am trying to push these thoughts of tomorrow out of my mind.. If you could say: you die only once.. because in spite of all these atrocities a fourteen-year-old resident of Będzin whose diary hidden under the floor was found after the war Rutka was mistaken only a little bit: the Germans began the final liquidation of the ghetto a few months later The last 12 thousand Jews from Bedzin including Rutka with her mother and brother were transferred to the then KL Auschwitz and murdered there About 2 thousand Jews were shot dead on the city streets.25th August will mark the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the Bedzin Ghetto The Jewish settlement in Bedzin dates back to the Middle Ages social and political heyday of the Jews from Bedzin takes place in the late nineteenth century they constitute almost 80% of the city’s population Even through during the interwar period their number continues to increase the proportion are changing rapidly: in 1931 less than every second citizen of the city consisting of 48,000 people is a Jew A year preceding the war in Bedzin lived almost 23,000 people.  German troops occupied Bedzin on the fourth day of the war Terror immediately broke out on the streets On 9th September the Germans set the synagogue on fire at the time of the service The Jews who were running away from the fire That same night 30 random residents were arrested The next they they were shot dead having been accusing of setting the synagogue on fire Since the beginning of the occupation the Jews living in the area of the center of Bedzin were being resettled to outlying districts the boundaries of the ghetto were not marked until October 1942 All Jews were to live in two poor neighbourhoods: Kamionka and Mała Środula guarded by the Jewish police was never surrounded by a wall or fence the Germans began mass deportations of the Jews in Bedzin to Auschwitz The largest deportation took place on 12th August of the same year: all Jewish people were gathered at the city’s two football pitches and after selection which lasted several hours over five thousand people able to work were sent to their deaths considered to be useful for the German industry was to be sent to a labor camp But she managed to escape by jumping from the first floor of the barrack in which she was waiting for the transport „I have surely seen enough misery that even a pen cannot describe Young children lying on the grass wet from the rain [...] I saw myself when a soldier snatched a several-month-old baby from its mother’s hands and with all his strength I am writing about it as if nothing had happened as if I were some experienced military person accustomed to atrocity you can go crazy if you remember it all” the Germans began the final liquidation of the Bedzin Ghetto because they encountered armed resistance of the Jewish Fighting Organization operating in the area of the Bedzin and Sosnowiec Ghettos The organisation was established in mid-1942 residing at the time in Zagłębie persuaded former officer Józef Kozuch to transform his vocational training courses into self-defence groups Among the initiators of the uprising were also: Józef’s brother a member of the commanding team of the Jewish Fighting Organization all Jewish fighters participating in it were killed Future generations may repeat the mistakes of their predecessors if the victims of totalitarianism are not sufficiently memorialized That is why we created in Bedzin a sundial and open-air spectacle „Bedzin 2013–1943” to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the tragedy of the Bedzin Ghetto This is the reason why we wish to invite everyone to this memorable ceremony Cookies allow us to understand how you use this site and improve your experience. Our detailed Cookie Policy can be found here By continuing to use this website you accept our use of cookies Mandatory cookies help make this website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website Our website cannot function properly without these cookies Statistic cookies help us understand how visitors interact with this website for example seeing which pages are most popular This information is collected anonymously and helps us improve the site by making the most sought after information easy to find Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites allowing the display of ads that are relevant and engaging for the visitor Whilst we do not display any advertising on the WJC website allowing marketing cooking may allow other sites to see that you have visited our site I was one of the organizers and leaders of a group of more than 200 Jews from the US and Sweden who had come to southern Poland to explore our common roots in the region known as Zaglembie (in Polish The trip was sponsored by the Israel-based Zaglembie World Organization in cooperation with the World Jewish Congress located between the town of Czeladź and my father’s adjacent hometown of Będzin It is one of the best-preserved Jewish cemeteries in Poland thanks to the Czeladź municipality and the efforts and generosity of a survivor from Czeladź my father’s mother who died in the 1919 flu epidemic when my father was eight years old I found myself walking anxiously through rows and rows of tombstones I knew that my grandmother’s tombstone had survived World War II intact a friend of my father’s was here and photographed it I was told that it is near the front of the cemetery but the coordinates I had been given turned out to be inaccurate A different name was on the stone in the location where my grandmother’s grave was supposed to be – someone else was lying in that spot One of the main reasons for my going on this trip was to say Kaddish at my grandmother’s grave I hadn’t realized how much this meant to me until it looked like it might not happen How could I tell my father that I couldn’t find his mother’s grave My father had died more than 42 years earlier I had the overwhelming feeling that I could not – must not – disappoint him I imagined my father shaking his head and saying to me “There was only one thing I wanted you to do on this trip reading the inscriptions on the stones as I went from row to row A candelabra with two broken candles is engraved on the gravestone I touched the stone and realized that I was standing where my father must have stood year after year probably until he left Będzin for the last time in 1943 I touched the stone where they had both probably touched it Others on the trip found graves in the Czeladź cemetery My cousin Susan found the graves of her father’s sister who died in the same epidemic as my grandmother in 1919 Standing in front of the graves of her grandparents took Trudy Elbaum Gottesman’s “breath away.”  Naomi Stawski-Altholz’s grandmother Chaya Sara is buried there the survivor responsible for the preservation of this cemetery She and her husband André are intent on continuing Stawski’s mission of maintaining the Czeladź cemetery they have also created a website where family members of the Jews buried in the cemetery can locate their relatives’ graves and see photographs of their tombstones without having to travel to Poland to do so The Czeladź Jewish cemetery is only about an hour’s drive from Auschwitz I returned with my wife Jeanie and our niece I hope to come there again with our grandchildren the only existing pre-Holocaust grave of any member of my family Hallie and Jacob will in turn bring their own children there Rosensaft is Associate Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the World Jewish Congress He teaches about the law of genocide at the law schools of Columbia and Cornell Universities For a Polish translation of this article click here The joint-stock company EC Będzin is one of the oldest energy companies in Poland as the first company in the power industry Its main areas of activity are the generation of heat and electricity and trade in energy raw materials Gdańsk University of Technology together with EC Będzin S.A will develop and promote primarily SMR technologies (Small Modular Reactors) SMR technology concerns small nuclear reactors of reduced scale compared to traditional SMR is a modern solution in the field of nuclear energy Small modular reactors are designed in such a way that the production of their key components takes place in factories which allows for reducing construction costs and shortening the time of project implementation compared to traditional nuclear power plants they can be installed in various locations also in places where the construction of a large nuclear power plant is unprofitable or difficult to implement for example in remote areas or industrial areas with high energy demand The University has committed to the Company in particular to: award EC BĘDZIN S.A the title of "Strategic Partner of the Nuclear Energy Center in the field of SMR technology"; It will also promote the development of energy technologies used in heating and power engineering and in particular SMR technology for heating Close cooperation is also planned in the scope of research and development tasks and projects the need for which will become apparent during the cooperation the Company has the right to designate four representatives in the nine-person Council of the Centre appointed by the Rector of Gdańsk University of Technology and the right to designate a representative of EC BĘDZIN S.A for the position of Deputy Director of the Centre the Company has undertaken to pay Gdańsk University of Technology a remuneration of approximately PLN 500 thousand net for each year of cooperation On behalf of Gdańsk University of Technology the agreement was signed by Prof Vice-President of the Management Board for Development The agreement was signed for one year with the possibility of automatic extension – Energy transformation in Europe and Poland is necessary in addition to the rightful idea of moving away from fossil fuels giving society a sense of security – said Prof – That is why I am extremely happy about signing this agreement I would very much like this cooperation to bring many technological solutions that will allow us to be competitive in this industry The ceremonial commencement of cooperation took place during the scientific and technical seminar entitled "Small and medium-power nuclear reactors - an alternative to large-scale nuclear power or its supplement" director of the Nuclear Energy Centre at Gdańsk University of Technology gave a presentation on nuclear reactors for district heating Waldemar Kamrat discussed the goals and scope of cooperation between the university and EC Będzin S.A discussing the history and development of the company and its development plans for the coming years Despite the air of despondency that hangs over the city a Polish couple is commemorating the city’s magnificent Jewish past 2023Get email notification for articles from Ofer Aderet FollowSep 22 which came to me during the summer when I visited Bedzin following in the footsteps of many friends and relatives who have already done so the Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance opened the exhibition at Museo Memoriale della Liberta the Institute of National Remembrance is accepting applications for the "Ambassador of Polish History" award The uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto (19 April - 16 May 1943) was an expression of the determination of the Jewish population which despite the lack of any hope for the success of the rebellion fighting for their pride and a sense of dignity The IPN Historical Research Office in Warsaw and the Branch Historical Research Office in Katowice invite you to participate in the international conference "Direction - Stalinism: A Postwar Signpost for Central and Eastern Europe." This event will take place on May 28-29 at the IPN Central History Point at 107 Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw CALL FOR PAPERS: International scientific conference Freedom was born in Poland “Solidarity” and opposition movements in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1980s for the 45th anniversary of creation of “Solidarity” as part of CRP “Solidarity” and Social Resistance 1956–1989” We encourage you to read some educational materials on the subject Sign up for a fresh look at history: stay up to date with the latest events good friend to many and a Holocaust survivor Ann’s early life was difficult: Her mother died before Ann was 10 years old her family was not well off and anti-Semitism was common in Bedzin But her extended family was large and close-knit and she had many happy memories of holidays and other special occasions filled with good food establishing curfews and requiring Jews to wear yellow arm bands as identification Ann remembered watching on a Friday evening as SS soldiers locked the doors of a synagogue filled with worshippers and burned the building to the ground she remembered the knock on the door when they came to take her brothers to work camps and in September of that year all Jews remaining in the town were ordered to gather in a square with their belongings Ann and her older sister Gusti (later Wolowski) were sent on a freight train to Parschnitz They worked there as slave laborers for a German industrialist in a mill producing thread from cotton to be used in army uniforms Ann and Gusti were joined at the camp by their younger sister Leah Ann and Gusti maintained a strong bond in the camp Ann later said that she survived because she decided to be strong and to have faith With little to eat on a Sabbath or other holiday she would keep her spirits up by talking with others about what life would be like that day if they were home: what they would eat how happy she would be when her father and brothers came home from services so they could all be together and sing around the table She later said that in those days she dreamed of being free of not being afraid of the knock on the door during the night and of having her own kitchen Ann and Gusti were liberated by the Russian army in May 1945 Not knowing whether any other members of their family had survived her brother Aron (later Warren) learned that they had survived and came from Germany to find them they made their way to the displaced persons camp at Bergen Belsen where they found their brother Chaim Warshawski (later known as John) At Bergen Belsen she met and fell in love with Chaim’s friend Isak Federman Aron and Isak immigrated to the United States and joined a small group of other survivors who came to Kansas City under the sponsorship of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) They were met at Union Station by a volunteer with Jewish Family Services which provided apartments for them to live in and helped them find jobs Their wedding was hosted by the Jewish community and Ann remembered a crowd of nearly 500 guests they went on a honeymoon to Denver by Greyhound bus to visit Gusti They returned to Kansas City in time for the Jewish High Holidays and were given a membership to Kehilath Israel Synagogue through which they made a number of lifelong friends In his history of the Kansas City Jewish community Joe Schultz wrote of Ann and Isak that in the days and years after they arrived in Kansas City and were married and with life itself.” And they continued to be Ann rejoiced in the freedom she found in the United States She devoted her life to the traditions she had grown up with and participating in the life of the Kansas City Jewish community She served as president of the Sisterhood of Kehilath Israel and continued to support the synagogue the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHE) and a number of other organizations no doubt because she was kind and thoughtful But she especially loved her role as wife and mother first to supporting his business and community pursuits and later to taking care of his needs until his death in September 2016 who enjoyed nothing more than cooking for her children and grandchildren and celebrating holidays and special occasions with them Arthur Federman (Diane) and Lorie Federman; five grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren The family thanks the staff at Village Shalom Patricia Vidal and Kansas City Hospice for their care of Ann the family requests contributions to the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (mchekc.org) KS 66211 or Kehilath Israel Synagogue (kisyn.org) Ann’s funeral was held on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. Shiva services were to be held by Zoom on Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. To obtain the link for shiva services, contact RegularLabs.EmailProtector.unCloak("ep_79a2eb6b");RegularLabs.EmailProtector.unCloak("ep_b6fc3d11" Online condolences for the family may be left at www.louismemorialchapel.com Arrangements entrusted to The Louis Memorial Chapel A meeting of Zionist youth at the agricultural training farm in Będzin during the war Image by Courtesy of Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum many resistors had been members of Polish-Jewish youth groups These movements which had promoted collectivism and peace transformed into underground militias in the ghettos Members had to grapple with the age-old question: fight or flight What was the point in a few Jewish kids attacking the most powerful army on earth In February 1943 the ghetto was gripped by cold The bustling commune building was unusually quiet The old buzz of Freedom’s cultural programs—language courses seminars on the connection between the heart and the land—had vanished an eighteen-year-old Jewish woman and an emerging warrior of the underground resistance movement She made her way to the meeting being held around the large table on the ground floor of the headquarters where their most important planning took place “We’ve obtained a few papers,” Hershel announced Frumka Płotnicka with her dark eyes and furrowed brow Frumka had joined the movement as an introverted teenager and given her inborn seriousness and analytic thinking she quickly became a leader in the underground her coleader of the Będzin “troop,” was at the other end of the table Hershel had “so much Jewish folk character in him” that he made frank conversation with anyone with shared roots goofy smile was a soothing force countering the destruction outside; the filthy ghetto that grew emptier each day Renia took her spot in between them at the table She often caught herself staggered in disbelief she’d gone from being a fifteen-year-old girl with six siblings and loving parents not even aware of how many of her brothers and sisters were still alive or where they might be Renia had run though fields covered in corpses she’d fled through fields completely on her own she’d bolted from a moving train and disguised herself as a Polish peasant girl taking up the post of housemaid for a part-German family She’d insisted on going to church with them as a cover The head of the household liked her and commended her for being clean Comrades from the pioneer training commune in Bialystock Frumka Plotnicka is standing second from the right Image by Courtesy of the Ghetto Fighters' House Museum Photo Archive Only when my parents died did I have to take on manual work.” but as soon as she was able to secretly contact her sister Sarah Sarah had arranged for Renia to be smuggled to Będzin to this center for the Freedom youth group to which she’d belonged Renia was now an educated girl who did laundry The Nazis had divided conquered Poland into distinct territories Renia had papers only for the General Government the area that was to serve as a “racial dumping ground,” with an endless supply of slave labor—and ultimately as a site for the mass extermination of European Jewry She did not have papers to be in Zaglembie her exuberant spirit and relentless optimism lighting the dark room Hantze loved to tell the comrades how she tricked the Nazis by dressing as a Catholic woman her face chiseled with sharp cheekbones and dark who with Sarah cared for the ghetto’s orphaned children “We’ve obtained a few papers,” Hershel repeated Each one allowed a person entry into an internment camp; allowed one per- son to live They were fake passports from allied countries where Germans were being held captive The holders of these allied passports were to be kept by the Nazis in special camps and were intended to be exchanged for Germans in those countries—one of numerous passport schemes that they’d heard of in the past years It took months to organize and obtain these documents a hugely expensive and dangerous process that involved sending secretly coded letters with photos to specialist counterfeiters This was a debate they’d been waging since earlier in the war A few Jews with even fewer guns were not going to topple the Nazis for a legacy of honor for future generations “Frumka!” Hershel called from across the table Hershel explained that a directive had come in from their revered leader in Warsaw Frumka was to use a passport to leave Poland for The Hague home to the UN’s Inter-national Court of Justice She would then travel to Palestine and serve as an official witness of Nazi atrocities almost see her sharp mind at work beneath her quiet face “No,” Frumka declared in her firm but gentle way But”—and here she paused—“let us strive for a heroic death.” As if the entire building had been resuscitated And that’s how they had their unanimous answer: defense Judy Batalion is the author of White Walls: A Memoir About Motherhood Her essays have appeared in the New York Times Judy has a BA in the History of Science from Harvard and a PhD in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute and has worked as a museum curator and university lecturer she now lives in New York with her husband and three children I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward American Jews need independent news they can trust At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S rising antisemitism and polarized discourse This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs Copyright © 2025 The Forward Association, Inc. 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Share to WhatsApp Copy Link Print Send by e-mail Share to Classroom Add to Favorites var tag = document.createElement('script'); tag.src = "https://www.youtube.com/iframe_api"; var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag slider=jQuery(".royalSlider").royalSlider({ // autoplay options go gere enabled: false,//true adina imageScaleMode: 'fit-if-smaller' slider = jQuery(".royalSlider").data('royalSlider'); const fullscreenButton = jQuery(".rsFullscreenBtn"); // ???? const fullscreenIcon = fullscreenButton.find(".rsFullscreenIcn"); // ???? customNavWrapper.append(prevArrow).append(customCounter).append(nextArrow); // jQuery(".royalSlider").append($customNavWrapper); jQuery(".rsGCaption").before(customNavWrapper); const currentSlide = slider.currSlideId + 1; // ???? const totalSlides = slider.numSlides; // ??? customCounter.text(`${currentSlide}/${totalSlides}`); slider.ev.trigger('rsAfterSlideChange'); slider.ev.on('rsOnCreateVideoElement' //alert("rsOnCreateVideoElement " + url); var player = new YT.Player('player' playerVars: { 'autoplay': 1 'onReady': onPlayerReady 'onStateChange': onPlayerStateChange function onPlayerReady(event) { event.target.playVideo(); function onPlayerStateChange(event) { if (event.data === 0) { slider.stopVideo(); jQuery(".royalSlider").height("auto"); // ����� ���� ����� ����� ���� ��� ��� slider.st.arrowsNav = true; // ����� ����� �� ����� ������ // ����� ���� ����� ����� ������ ���� ��� slider.st.arrowsNav = false; // ����� ������ jQuery('.popup-gallery').magnificPopup({ tLoading: 'Loading image #%curr%...' //temp += 'Can We Use Nazi Medical Research in Order to Help Save Lives Today?'; A doctor examining a child in the ghetto clinic with a nurse wearing the Jewish badge standing next to him Marta's father decided that it was no longer safe for the children to remain in Bratislava and decided to sent them away to different families her parents paid someone to bring her back to Bratislava Marta's father sent her and her sister Eva to live in Nitra and subsequently deported to Auschwitz on November 3 Marta was just ten years old when she arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau and were reunited with their family in June Only at the end of the war did the family find out that Marta's younger sister The rest of her siblings and her parents survived the Holocaust In 1948 Marta's family left Slovakia and moved to Australia The Holocaust was not simply the unprecedented attempt to systematically annihilate the Jewish people it also represents the total breakdown of morality and behavioral norms Previously perceived impossible notions became a matter of public policy This new reality affected nearly all sectors of society The centuries-old Hippocratic Oath and all physicians’ commitment  to "do no harm" to their patients began to crumble at the core nurses and other healthcare workers were now faced with real life-and-death dilemmas in this newfound reality the ability to justify inhumane treatment of members of society deemed "sub-human" or “anti-human” by the authorities opened up "opportunities" for experimentation with little to no care for their wellbeing or even comfort were subjected to some of the most inhumane treatment imaginable under the cover of public interest this period also ushered in a new reality for the Jews of Europe living under Nazi control Many were forced to live in overcrowded and disease-infested ghettos where starvation and death were the only constants medicine and basic equipment forced medical professionals to face "choiceless choices" concerning on whom to expend valuable and scarce resources on a daily basis there has been a longstanding debate in the medical community considering whether knowledge and research findings from this dark period of our shared history should be used to help improve the quality of life of people suffering from various ailments today This controversial issue was once again thrust into the spotlight when the media reported that anatomy drawings of Dr Eduard Pernkopf were used to help relieve the suffering of Dvir Musai suffering from chronic pain for nearly 20 years a unique online panel discussion on the moral dilemmas faced by both Jewish and German medical professionals during the Holocaust will take place Entitled "Do No Harm – Medical Ethics and the Holocaust," the 90-minute panel will feature Prof Head of Yad Vashem's International Institute for Holocaust Research The panel will begin at 9:00pm (Israel time)/2.00pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) and will be moderated by Yad Vashem Senior Historian Dr when members of the public are temporarily unable to visit the Mount of Remembrance  in Jerusalem Yad Vashem is offering a vast selection of free online resources about the Holocaust This panel is part of a new series of online lectures being launched in which interested audiences worldwide will have the opportunity to hear from renowned Yad Vashem experts historians and researchers on various compelling and timely topics The Yad Vashem website had recently undergone a major upgrade The page you are looking for has apparently been moved We are therefore redirecting you to what we hope will be a useful landing page For any questions/clarifications/problems, please contact: webmaster@yadvashem.org.il Zimmerman and his Jewish family tried to keep a low profile residing next to a slaughterhouse where screams of animals haunted him until being forced to the Będzin Ghetto one of the many ghettos set up by Nazi Germany for Polish Jews his family and 40 others hid in the attic for more than a week before being discovered and captured by army officers They managed to escape captivity and fled to Budapest only to be caught again and transported to the Sered labor camp in Slovakia Zimmerman and his family were deported to Auschwitz This is just one of dozens of stories to surface because of the exhibit, “Through the Eyes of Youth: Life and Death in the Będzin Ghetto,” a product of Northern Arizona University’s Martin-Springer Institute Preserving and understanding the Holocaust in its entirety is exactly why the Martin-Springer Institute was created and this exhibit has been a long time coming the institute was built to raise awareness of human rights by remembering the stories of injustice exhibits and applied research opportunities After the Martin-Springer Institute was established professor and director of the institute Björn Krondorfer and former professor Martin Kalb had hopes to create an exhibit that exposed the realities of the ghetto in Będzin as a way to honor Doris Martin More than just a small showcase that people could see when they passed through Flagstaff Krondorfer and Kalb wanted to create something with a much further reach—an exhibit that would travel the world With the help of 12 NAU interdisciplinary students recruited to dig through archives of Poland’s history and conduct interviews about the Holocaust “Through the Eyes of Youth: Life and Death in the Będzin Ghetto” was born “Conducting research was the easy part,” said NAU alumnus Justin Bigelow who was studying to receive his bachelor’s degree in history when he was selected for the project “Collaborating with a group of people from different backgrounds was a little more challenging.” the exhibit that came out of the research and collaboration was worth it “It was really rewarding to work with a group of people that cared and I mean genuinely gave a damn about the story we were trying to tell,” he said On Sept. 14, 2014, the exhibit was unveiled. It traveled throughout Arizona, and eventually made its way across the United States. Following its unveiling, a new team of undergraduates began converting the exhibit into digital media, a process that would take more than two years. Thanks to their efforts, glimpses into the 1940s Będzin Ghetto can now be seen online—fuzzy black-and-white photographs depict crowds of people some people caught candidly and others who stare blankly into the camera lens Digitization continued as the exhibit made its way to the East Coast while on display at a synagogue in Riverdale Krondorfer spoke to Holocaust survivors and their descendants from Będzin and the surrounding area Word of the exhibit reached Monika Kempara who then worked with Krondorfer to translate the text of the exhibit into Polish and insert it into the graphic files for printing the exhibit traveled overseas to Kempara’s hometown of Sosnowiec—a sister city of Będzin and former ghetto of the war some 80 years earlier—and was displayed along the fence of the local soccer fields “More than just a way to honor Doris who lived as an adolescent girl in Będzin this exhibit focuses on young people in a specific location (a mid-sized industrial town in Poland) and humanizes the impersonal number of millions of Holocaust victims,” Krondorfer said “Creating the exhibit—and later the accompanying website—shows how young people negotiated restrictive It offers a glimpse into their daily lives but also shows their spirited resilience.” the exhibit continues to grow in popularity With it came the outpouring of stories from survivors of the Holocaust who stepped forward to offer additional resources information and personal contributions to the exhibit the exhibit will be showcased in the Center of the Holocaust and Genocide located in Johannesburg where a large group of Będzin Jews settled and where their descendants still reside “This exhibit set a new direction in how to involve NAU students in meaningful public history and public humanities projects—projects that reach people’s hearts and minds not only on campus and in our community “I don’t think anyone at NAU at the time thought such a global reach and expansion would be possible.” לאהלעך –                                                         no Moyshelekh or Shloymelekh play any more I remember listening to this haunting song by the poet Yosef Papiernikov It always brought and still brings tears to my eyes because the Bendin and Sosnowce about which I had heard so much from my parents no longer exist They vanished from this earth together with all the Moyshelekh and Shloymelekh and of all the other towns and shetlekh throughout Zaglembie who were so brutally murdered in the gas chambers of Birkenau Those few hours I was in Będzin and Sosnowiec that day were among the most uncomfortable the most unpleasant I have ever experienced hostile places where I definitely did not belong I had been to Auschwitz and Birkenau for the first time where most of my family together with most of the Jews of Zaglembie perished than in the cities where my parents were born and had lived I have not been to Będzin or Sosnowiec since I came to Będzin and Sosnowiec that day in 1995 with images of Bendin and Sosnowce in my mind My father’s heder in Bendin – the Gerer Shtibl where my grandfather and great-grandfather davened – streets and alleys permeated by a Jewish atmosphere that transcends both time and space that heder – they now exist only in our hearts remembered the Bendin of her youth in her memoirs: double-courtyard building on Kołątaja Street one of three main boulevards that ran through the city More than a hundred families resided in the building's one- to four-room apartments Even the basements and attics were occupied by tenants except on the side of the attic where everyone hung their laundry to dry lived in the front apartments where the windows faced the street The rear apartments were mostly occupied by trades people a private school for girls that my oldest sister Helen attended where I exercised when I was grammar school age where a rabbi taught young boys to read the Torah There seemed to be a whole city within the confines of this one urban dwelling a city densely populated with vivid sounds smells and characters that I have never forgotten Almost all of the tenants were Jewish and everyone knew everyone else my mother returned to Poland for the first time since she had been deported from her hometown to Birkenau by the Germans She returned to Poland as a member of President Carter’s Commission on the Holocaust my mother recalled in her memoirs which she finished writing shortly before her death: afraid of what I would see and how I would react New buildings have gone up and highways have been built except in one respect:  there are no Jews left The street where I had lived is almost the same which used to have only Jewish inhabitants I looked up and saw the apartment with its balconies Here I was born and raised with my brother and sister Here I spent happy years of childhood and youth with my wonderful parents I felt I was in a strange town on a strange street in front of a strange house Thirty-nine years after my mother’s only return to Sosnowiec and 23 years since I was in Będzin and Sosnowiec and while I confess that the prospect of doing so still fills me with substantial trepidation we will be experiencing this journey into our individual and collective past together Many of us met yesterday for the first time I am certain that we will become closer to one another and that this trip to Zaglembie will bind us together for years to come I want to express the deepest admiration and appreciation to Rina Kahan who has worked tirelessly and with unbelievable dedication and passion to organizing this trip on behalf of the World Zaglembie Organization in order to make sure that each of us has as positive an experience as only possible I also want to express the warmest best wishes to all of you for a most meaningful trip from World Jewish Congress President Ronald S The World Jewish Congress is proud to be co-sponsoring this week’s journey of remembrance we are no longer alone in our sacred mission of remembrance and elsewhere who are devoting themselves passionately and with the highest integrity to commemorating what happened to our families and their communities during the Shoah because one risks omitting others – but I need to mention here Piotr and Karolina Jakoweńko from Będzin; Monika Kempara from Sosnowiec; Marcin Bergier from Zawiercie; and the unsurpassed historian of Zaglembie Jewry during the Shoah We owe them all a tremendous debt of gratitude I want to urge you to attend a series of presentations and special programs later today and tomorrow afternoon we wanted it to prominently include a historical dimension so as to put the experiences we will have over the course of this coming week in perspective my friend Henri Lustiger-Thaler together with Piotr and Karolina Jakoweńko will tell us about their forthcoming exhibition and book Ann Weiss will speak about the thousands of photographs of Jews from Zaglembie that she discovered in 1986 The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau We will see these photographs on Sunday at Birkenau we will have the unique opportunity of listening about the Bendin – not Będzin – that was from Esther Peterseil who remembers it from her childhood and who will be in dialogue with her daughter and again at 6:00 o’clock tomorrow evening Jeffrey Cymbler will deliver lectures on different genealogical aspects of discovering elements of our families’ histories and he is certainly the authority on genealogical issues as they pertain to Zaglembie Haim Dekel and Fred Frenkel will provide us with an introduction to the world of genealogy This will be followed at 4:00 o’clock by a lecture by Professor Robert Moses Shapiro on the phenomenon of the Judenrat I will try to place the different roles of Poles during the Shoah in historical context this is a subject that has been much in the news I recent months and I think it is important for all of us to have the facts We very much hope that you will all attend these programs One last thought as we embark on our journey of memory let us remember our murdered families and all the murdered Jews of Zaglembie for who they were and how they lived As I remember my five-and-a-half-year-old brother Benjamin let us remember them as they played and laughed And so allow me to conclude this morning with the lyrics of another song by Papiernikov which I look forward to singing together with you this evening: אז מײן גאט איז אינגאנצן נישטא  –             Yossi Lemel photographed his younger daughter to represent his mother often asks himself to what extent the Holocaust can be studied on a personal level and the personal applied to the collective Dad talked very little about what he went through He arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau with his father Eleven young people from his home community of Bedzin were chosen The one who actually conducted the experiments was Mengele's assistant [Dad] went through hell and couldn't talk about it for years," Lemel tells Israel Hayom I know that they experimented on them by injecting them with hepatitis B they performed liver biopsies without anesthetic He went through the experiments at the Auschwitz I camps He was also an errand boy who carried messages to Mengele He said that every time he saw Mengele he'd run away Dad also witnessed experiments they did on others he's 92 and for years he kept silent about the hell he endured there My mother also experienced the Holocaust in the town of Bedzin as a member of the Radomsk hassidic community She was actually the one who talked about it." When Lemel decided to touch this open wound he created work for large-scale graphic exhibits that focused on the private destruction his family experienced as a way of making the disaster that befell the Jewish people palpable to viewers "I don't create these pieces to earn money I'm a conduit through which the memory of the Holocaust is passed on to future generations I don't sell the work and I don't make money off it," Lemel says studied graphic design at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design He is mainly known for his political posters many of which deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict He says that the first trip he photographed and edited into an art piece followed his father's childhood starting in Bedzin in southern Poland until the time he reached the Auschwitz death camp I photographed myself shaved and dressed in a prisoner's uniform in the Auschwitz blocks The experience was amazing in its awfulness." In the exhibit dedicated to his grandfather and his family Lemel photographed the synagogue where his grandfather used to pray with his own image reproduced over and over again in different positions This is how Lemel portrays the people who are no longer alive and left gaping holes behind them "There are almost no Jews in Poland anymore So I created a piece in which I take a picture of myself in a synagogue reproduced until [the synagogue is] full of my own image I also made a big piece featuring the tattooed number given to my father at the death camp," Lemel says This unusual piece of work was displayed on an entire floor of the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg and sparked great interest among German visitors which included a giant poster of my father's concentration camp number – six digits on [a poster] 6 meters [20 feet] long – was signed by Germany's foreign minister at the time I already have the Germans' signature on my left arm Lemel has also enlisted his family for his pieces He photographed his younger daughter six times the biggest hassidic sect in southern Poland They had 50,000 Hassidim and more than 36 yeshivas but the Radomsker rebbe (Rabbi Shlomo Hanoch Hacohen Rabinowitz) who chose to remain with his Hassidic followers was subjected to brutal torture and secretly moved to Warsaw Some of Rabinowitz's relatives were killed along with him and other than a few survivors his Hassidic sect was wiped out The murder of an entire branch of Hassidic Jewry prompted Lemel to take a third trip to Poland where he created a piece portraying the various stages of the rebbe's life Lemel says that the trip was important to him on both a personal and a national level "I wanted to heal the tear and restore to our people an entire part of it that was lost which we don't deal with at all because of the national trauma we went through people who are as far as they could be from the world of hassidism suddenly start talking about their [personal] links to the Holocaust the understanding that we are part of an entire people I'm not talking about a connection to religion but rather a connection to the Jewish identity that came apart "In the early days of the state [of Israel] but as an artists I feel that we haven't worked through the tragedy My mission is to introduce the public to their ancestors," Lemel says Lemel's father's fragments of stories influenced him deeply He used them as material in his other work including some about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "My work expresses the fears and threat that I absorbed unconsciously," he says Q: How to Israelis respond to your presentations I'm the great-granddaughter of the Chazon Ish [Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz.]' And she's not alone There is a real thirst not only to deal with the Holocaust but also to remember the Jewish world for the past 2,000 years I've done posters for Amnesty International everything about Greenpeace is important to me as an artist and we need to preserve its sustainability As someone who grew up in a home with a religious mother and a secular father who is angry at the Creator my art is a way of connecting to the sacred "I have a lot of work about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I see my main work as bringing the fading coals of our connection to our people to life "Masses of Poles came to my exhibit about my mother which opened at Poland's National Museum in Poznan in the summer of 2008 but I think that this is a way to understand where we came from." He spends most of his days running the ad agency Lemel Cohen and lecturing at the Holon Institute of Technology while art has a dimension of depth and delay you need to send a message using a short design A lot of thought and artistic work goes into advertising I see my presentations about the Holocaust as my [artistic] peak Jewish Agency Chairman Major General (Res.) Doron Almog met with new Olim soldiers.. "I know there's a lot of responsibility on me the scale and nature of the tragedy in the Lapu Lapu festival that killed 11 feel alien... Analysis  Archaeology Blogpost Business & Finance Culture Exclusive Explainer Environment Features Health In Brief Jewish World Judea and Samaria Lifestyle Cyber & Internet Sports Diplomacy  Iran & The Gulf Gaza Strip Politics Shopping Terms of use Privacy Policy Submissions Contact Us The first issue of Israel Hayom appeared on July 30 Israel Hayom was founded on the belief that the Israeli public deserves better more balanced and more accurate journalism [contact-form-7 id=”508379″ html_id=”isrh_form_Newsletter_en” title=”newsletter_subscribe”] Newburgh — The young couple walked single file from the Polish factory They had been hiding her in a secret bunker inside a German's Jewish-staffed factory But the liquidation of the city of Bedzin was almost complete The couple strode quickly toward a tall man waiting by a fence they thrust their 5-year-old into his grip He hoisted her over the fence and dropped her on the other side The Reyms couldn't know what happened next Of the thousands of Jewish children who lived in the industrial city of Bedzin at the start of World War II She became a filmmaker and a professor of media studies at Connecticut's Quinnipiac University She visited Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh yesterday for a special screening of "Diamonds in the Snow," her award-winning documentary on the children of Bedzin The film traces the survival stories of Binford and two other Jewish girls who hid with different Christian families in Poland It is a painstaking reconstruction of a city's fall and the complex relationships among its people the lines between good and evil are blurred The difference between life and death could come down to pure grit — like parents tossing their child over a fence — or mere chance — like that child catching a trolley to the home of a Christian woman Binford's surrogate family had bleach for her hair and a cross pendant for her neck "I was a cousin from the country," she recalled I remember the wafer melting on my tongue." Her new family risked their lives to keep her safe but Binford's film shows that even the heroes were flawed Her adoptive father taught her to read and write yet beat her regularly with leather straps "and I'd have to start laughing in the middle of my tears." Binford was eventually reunited with her parents Her mother escaped a death march from the Auschwitz concentration camp Retreating German soldiers left her father to die in the Buchenwald prison It was not until filming began for Binford's documentary that she gathered the courage to visit relatives of her adoptive family She later nominated them for the Yad Vashem's "Righteous Among the Nations" medal an award granted to 21,000 non-Jewish WWII rescuers For more information on "Diamonds in the Snow," contact The National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University at 781-899-7044 or ncjf@brandeis.edu which documents the final months before her death in the Auschwitz concentration camp Rutka Laskier, 14, the same age as the Dutch teenager Anne Frank wrote the 60-page diary over a four-month period in Bedzin documents the steady collapse of the ghetto under the weight of the Nazi occupation and deportations friendships and jealousies of an adolescent girl growing up during the war she said: "I simply can't believe that one day I will be allowed to leave this house without the yellow star If this happens I will probably lose my mind from joy "The little faith I used to have has been completely shattered he would have certainly not permitted that human beings be thrown alive into furnaces and the heads of little toddlers be smashed with the butt of guns or be shoved into sacks and gassed to death." Later she wrote: "The rope around us is getting tighter and tighter I'm turning into an animal waiting to die." Her final entry is brief: "I'm very bored The entire day I'm walking around the room at which point she hid the notebook in the basement of the house her family were living in a building that had been confiscated by the Nazis to be part of the Bedzin ghetto the teenager and her family were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and it is thought she was killed immediately The diary was found after the war by Stanislawa Sapinska a Christian whose family owned the house lived in by the Laskiers and who had met Rutka several times during the war Ms Sapinska, now in her late 80s, took the diary and kept it secret for more than 60 years until one of her nephews last year convinced her to present it to Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust museum and archive in Jerusalem "She wanted me to save the diary," Ms Sapinska told the Associated Press "She said 'I don't know if I will survive so that everyone will know what happened to the Jews'." The diary was authenticated by Yad Vashem, which has now published it as Rutka's Notebook, in Hebrew and English. Rutka's father, Yaakov, was the only member of the family to survive the camp. He moved to Israel and had a new family knew nothing about Rutka before the journal surfaced "I was struck by this deep connection to Rutka," said Dr Sherz This black hole was suddenly filled and I immediately fell in love with her." "I have a feeling that I am writing for the last time There is an Aktion [a Nazi arrest operation] in town I'm not allowed to go out and I'm going crazy The town is breathlessly waiting in anticipation but they keep haunting me like nagging flies because despite all these atrocities I want to live That means waiting for Auschwitz or labour camp I must not think about this so now I'll start writing about private matters." Professor Mary Fulbrook researches knowledge and understanding of Germany's contested past The research has been of particular personal significance to people variously grappling with the continuing legacies of Nazism and the Holocaust and the East German communist dictatorship (GDR) Professor Mary Fulbrook's research at UCL School of European Languages Culture & Society has focused on the ways in which people are both shaped by the historical periods into which they are born challenging and transforming the regimes through which they live She has concentrated particularly on the German dictatorships of the twentieth century.In A Small Town near Auschwitz: Ordinary Nazis and the Holocaust (2012) Professor Fulbrook explored the development of Nazi racist policies and genocide in Będzin Some 85,000 Jews were deported through the linked ghettos of Będzin-Sosnowiec; almost all the Jewish citizens of Będzin around half the total population of this town were murdered as a result of Nazi oppression; yet it has virtually escaped the attention of historians Her work focused primarily on the role and later self-representations of the principal civilian administrator of Będzin who went on to a successful postwar career in the West German civil service letters from his wife to her mother in Berlin during the war oral history interviews and archival sources the researcher examined the implications of 'systemic violence' and the role of German civilian administrators as 'Hitler's willing functionaries' There is also a personal twist to this story: Klausa's wife was a schoolfriend of Professor Fulbrook's mother who was a refugee from Nazi Germany; and Fulbrook knew the Klausa family well She was all the more shocked to discover Klausa's Nazi past and the ways in which his involvement had been covered up - ways that were typical in many German families after the war.The book has since received widespread acclamatory reviews: the New York Review of Books called it a 'milestone in Holocaust historiography' Through radio programmes and newspaper coverage millions of people around the world came into contact with Professor Fulbrook's research and many testaments have been received from both individuals and organisations Relatives of both perpetrators and victims wrote in to say how it had affected how they understood their own family history and the continuing significance of the Nazi past a lecture by Professor Fulbrook led to the withdrawal of an adulatory website biography of Klausa by the Rhineland Regional Council Europe and the USA have also provoked a serious rethinking of the role of civilian administrators in Nazi atrocities A Small Town in Auschwitz emerges from a broad body of German history research including a related book on Dissonant Lives: Generations and Violence in the German Dictatorships (2011) which also touched personal chords in its readers In this - which spans the whole of the twentieth century - and in an earlier project on the GDR The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker Professor Fulbrook studied the ways in which ordinary people were involved in the 'participatory dictatorship' of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) she released a documentary film based on this research Titled Behind the Wall: 'Perfectly Normal Lives' in the GDR the film has been widely adopted for teaching and extracurricular purposes in the UK and sections were used as teaching materials in the OCR A level history syllabus She also wrote chapters based on this research for the OCR History A level textbook and regularly lectures to secondary school students and their teachers Fulbrook's research has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Leverhulme Trust Email the UCL Research Impact Curation & Support (RICS) team RICS is part of the Office of the Vice Provost for Research Resources for UCL staff CA Immo exits non-core market Serbia with the sale of the 19,600 sqm office building Sava Business Center in Belgrade Both the sales price and the buyer are subject to confidentiality As the PBSA sector finally takes off in Poland it is now increasingly attracting international operators and investors Eurobuild CEE spoke to Xior's investment manager about why it has such confidence in the Polish market Residential developer Develia has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire all the shares in Bouygues Immobilier Polska the Polish subsidiary of Bouygues Immobilier ESA logistika has leased 15,000 sqm in Prologis Park Piotrków GLP has completed the development of its Wrocław V Logistics Centre and has received a BREEAM rating of Outstanding Panattoni has secured EUR 40 mln in financing from BNP Paribas for the development of Panattoni Park Sosnowiec IV Newgate Investment (NGI) and Redkom Development are developing a large retail park in Bydgoszcz Deutsche Hypo – NORD/LB Real Estate Finance has provided a five-year green loan to Olivia Seven for the refinancing of the Olivia Prime A office building in Gdańsk-Oliwa communications and security company Motorola Solutions has signed a five-year lease renewal 18,000 sqm at the Green Office complex in Kraków’s Podgórze district Falling interest rates and easing monetary policy across the eurozone and CEEi are boosting investor confidence in the region’s commercial real estate market reveals Colliers in its ‘Beyond Real Estate | Economy’ report Panattoni is to build the Panattoni Park Mainz Süd in Erbes-Büdesheim bei Alzey Axi Immo has presented its latest report “Warsaw Office Market – Q1 2025 The market opened in 2025 on a steady footing with a notable increase in leasing activity and a modest decline in vacancy landlords continue to focus on upgrading existing assets and prioritizing quality over quantity Convenience store chain Żabka has officially opened a new logistics centre in Kąty Wrocławskie The first stage of the development will serve 1,500 stores in the Wrocław area Romanian Post has leased over 5,000 sqm of logistics space in CTPark Bucharest to serve as its temporary regional courier and logistics hub for Bucharest JLL has announced the sale and leaseback of two properties by a manufacturing company in a deal worth over PLN 1 bln Warehouse developer CTP is adding 2,000 sqm to its Clubco coworking development in Brno pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank has extended an investment facility to PineBridge Benson Elliot for the Diuna Office Park in Warsaw The hotel market in Bucharest continued its recovery in 2024 while the ADR has finally surpassed the milestone of EUR 100 Torus has announced its All.inn students’ residence concept that is soon to appear on ul which specialises in temperature-controlled goods is to enlarge its freezer warehouse in Radomsko by an additional 4,800 sqm it will be the company's largest distribution centre in Poland Footwear retailer Deichmann has prolonged its lease of 21,000 sqm in Prologis Park Wrocław III The company has been in the park since 2011 The grand opening of DPD's 18,000 sqm logistics hub at Segro Logistics Park Stryków took place on 14 April 2025 The courier company currently leases a total of more than 35,000 sqm across Segro's portfolio in Poland The largest Polish ice cube manufacturer has increased the space it leases at the MLP Pruszków II warehouse complex to 7,200 sqm an Oligocene well has been drilled to meet the tenant's needs Peakside Capital Advisors and Partners Group have laid the cornerstone for the City Point Okęcie logistics centre Panattoni has completed the expansion of Panattoni Park Koluszki in Central Poland and obtained an occupancy permit Axi Immo has presented its latest market analysis in the special publication "Central Poland Industrial Snapshot" the region recorded a historic high in industrial and logistics leasing activity A 15,300 sqm hi-tech production hall has opened in Debrecen developed by Panattoni Hungary and the OTP Real Estate Investment Fund a company that specialises in LED light therapy and pharmaceuticals distributor Avenier have both signed leases for space in CTPark Plzeň Kasárny Mito Light is to take up 556 sqm while Avenier has leased 588 sqm with the handover planned for the autumn of 2025 With warehouse and industrial stock of nearly 35 mln sqm Poland’s market has stabilised at a healthy level Logistics operator DB Schenker has leased an additional 9,800 sqm in the Hillwood Rawicz logistics centre The tenant has been operating from the centre since the autumn of last year when it opened a service centre with an area of over 17,000 sqm for a manufacturer of optical products More than 2.6 mln sqm of industrial and logistics space was delivered across Poland in 2024 according to BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland’s latest report "At a Glance While this was below the new supply levels recorded in previous years Spring has very much sprung and everywhere is bathed in the first warm sunshine of the year I have in the back of my mind the terrifying fo .. The Polish warehouse market has finally stabilised after the post-pandemic boom but new challenges and opportunities are on the horizon for the sector UBM Development has been given the go-ahead for the first wooden office building in Poland: Timber Park in Poleczki Business Park in Warsaw The office market in Warsaw is currently experiencing a period of stability in terms of supply and take-up Recent data on overall tenant activity indicates that clients in the cap .. Receive all the latest information from the world of real estate by e-mail the construction of the Aura residential building designed by Robert Konieczny's office KWK Promes According to a report by research company Spectis “Construction companies in Poland 2025-2030” the total revenues of the 300 leading construction gro .. The Globalworth Foundation has provided the authorities in Bucharest with office space for a Covid vaccination centre Panattoni BTS and Commercecon together support the establishment of the second Centaurus Foundation centre in Poland to help horses and other animals intends to focus on operations in other reg .. Six class A office buildings in the PRO Portfolio which is jointly owned by PineBridge Benson Elliot and Sharow Capital have been granted BREEAM In-U .. Who won this year's 14th edition of the Eurobuild Awards The jury and guests gathered at the Double Tree by Hilton hotel in Warsaw chose this year's .. Enjoy the last set of recordings with comments straight from this year's MIPIM we asked experts from our home country for their input will take place on 9-10 April 2025 at the Norblin Factory Event Hall in W .. we invite you to hot episode of the "Eye to eye" podcast The UN Nansen Refugee Award award will go to Poland for the first time According to the office of the UNHCR High Commissioner this year's regional wi .. Czech developer CTP has been granted a EUR 200 mln loan from the European Investment Bank for the roll-out of its large-scale solar panel installation .. while the ADR has finally surpassed the milestone .. Jarosław Szanajca plans to resign from the position of president of the management board of Dom Development at the end of the year and join the superv .. The Polish and Danish governments have entered preliminary discussions for the construction of a tunnel between Szczecin and Copenhagen underneath the .. Viterra has moved into its ​​new 1,500 sqm offices in Olivia Prime part of the Olivia Centre business complex in Gdańsk Panattoni has acquired two properties near Gothenburg The brownfield sites will be replaced by a modern 43,000 sqm facility Contemporary cities are grappling with the challenge of fostering dynamic growth while alleviating environmental pressures Colliers has taken over the management of the Studio B office building located in the Warsaw Wola district The property is owned by Stena Real Estate .. The University of Warsaw has signed a contract with the general contractor for a project at ul The new building will house the faculti .. Velis Real Estate Tech is officially changing its name to Singu adopting the title of its property management product the construction of the Panattoni Park Unterfranken has officially started Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time accomplished and astute woman with an indomitable spirit who was one of the most powerful voices of Holocaust survival in Australia and beyond 1922 into a traditional Jewish family in Bedzin a Polish town with a population that was predominantly Jewish was 17 years old at the outbreak of World War II local Volksdeutsche – ethnic Germans – burned the Great Synagogue destroying about 50 surrounding homes inhabited mostly by Jews These events put paid to Kitia's plans to study at an institute of languages in Paris she began work in a Bedzin factory producing uniforms for the German army With an influx of Jews fleeing large Nazi-occupied Polish towns the Germans pronounced the formation of a ghetto Kitia became friends with a woman named Cesia and the bond between the two young women became unshakeable their mutual support contributing in no small measure to their survival during the Holocaust kindness and humane treatment of the Jews under his control enabled him to protect many of them He also went out of his way to orchestrate repeated opportunities for escape for Kitia Kitia did not seize the opportunity to go into hiding with a non-Jewish woman Four months after the final liquidation of the ghetto Rossner was arrested by the Gestapo and was hanged the following month for aiding and protecting Jews In 1985 Kitia nominated Pajak to be honoured as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem the Jerusalem-based Holocaust remembrance centre Both their names are commemorated on the Mount of Remembrance In June 1944 Kitia and Cesia were transported to the Annaberg labour camp in Germany where Kitia worked in the laundry From there they were taken to Auschwitz and were tattooed with identity numbers one digit apart – A25440 and A25441 – and experienced the real horror of dehumanisation In November 1944 she and Cesia were transported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in northern Germany which was exclusively for women and which Kitia later described as sheer hell there was little food and prisoners worked outdoors in a quarry After a month she and Cesia were taken to the Bensdorf concentration camp Kitia was set to work in an underground armaments factory in a salt mine liberated by the International Red Cross and taken to Sweden There she received news about family in Palestine and France had died on a death march 10 days before the end of the war a veterinary surgeon who hid in the Pyrenees Kitia married and in 1947 came to Australia she always focused on the goodness of humankind Three years after its establishment in 1984 Kitia began volunteering at the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Elsternwick teaching many thousands of school and tertiary students about the Holocaust She also addressed adult groups and interviewed scores of Holocaust survivors whose testimonies were recorded She was particularly passionate about acknowledging the acts of courage of non-Jews who risked their lives and often those of their families to save Jews during the Holocaust Kitia's many contributions to the growth of the Jewish Holocaust Centre and her commitment to its mission to foster tolerance and to combat hatred she once said that "no one can make any predictions about the future but as long as people exist who understand the survivors and can pass the knowledge and the feelings of the survivors on to others both as part of Jewish identity and for its universal importance" the last chapter in one of her books,Memories of Ordinary People she declares that her purpose in life after surviving the horrors of the Holocaust was to honour the memory of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust while striving "for a more humane society" Kitia debated the Holocaust denier David Irving She felt compelled to confront Irving over his statements about the non-existence of gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau claiming that such statements were an affront "to the memory of the dead and the decency of the living" Her encounter with Irving was included in a scene in the 2016 movie Denial based on the celebrated trial in which Irving unsuccessfully sued Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt asserting that Lipstadt had libelled him in her book Denying the Holocaust Kitia was awarded an OAM in June 2013 "for service to the community particularly through the Jewish Holocaust Centre" during a brief conducted tour of the centre's museum who walked upon the soil of Auschwitz as a young woman would one day shake the hand of the prime minister of Australia." * Michael Cohen is Director of Community Relations and Research at the Jewish Holocaust Centre local Volksdeutsche \\u2013 ethnic Germans \\u2013 burned the Great Synagogue These events put paid to Kitia's plans to study at an institute of languages in Paris From there they were taken to Auschwitz and were tattooed with identity numbers one digit apart \\u2013 A25440 and A25441 \\u2013 and experienced the real horror of dehumanisation In November 1944 she and Cesia were transported to the Ravensbr\\u00FCck concentration camp in northern Germany Kitia's many contributions to the growth of the Jewish Holocaust Centre she once said that \\\"no one can make any predictions about the future both as part of Jewish identity and for its universal importance\\\" she declares that her purpose in life after surviving the horrors of the Holocaust was to honour the memory of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust while striving \\\"for a more humane society\\\" claiming that such statements were an affront \\\"to the memory of the dead and the decency of the living\\\" Kitia was awarded an OAM in June 2013 \\\"for service to the community particularly through the Jewish Holocaust Centre\\\" during a brief conducted tour of the centre's museum would one day shake the hand of the prime minister of Australia.\\\" wants Poles who would rather forget to remember Szydlowski’s resume displays his qualifications He’s the Editor-in-Chief for the municipal paper Founder and President of the Rutka Laskier Foundation Founder of the Museum of the Jews of Zaglebie (the Dabrowski Basin of Southern Poland) The cost to being so openly philosemitic in Poland generations-old antisemitism where millions of Jewish perished The Demise of a Thriving Jewish Community Pre-WWII Bedzin had been a prosperous industrial hub with about 27,000 Jews co-existing peacefully with Polish neighbors Jews fared better there than elsewhere in Nazi-occupied areas Thousands of Jews worked in Christian industrialist Alfred Rossner’s Bedzin factory Here Szydlowski pivots to the Laskier family and their daughter Rutka Krakow banker Yaakov Laskier’s family moved in with relatives in Bedzin; in 1943 whose family relinquished their ghetto-situated house to the Laskiers periodically visited and befriended 14-year-old Rutka Rutka kept a diary about typical “teen” issues—her looks boys—but she also carefully documented life The ghetto was split in two in 1943; the Laskiers Rutka’s mother Devorah and younger brother Henius perished when she contracted cholera and was sent to the crematoria where he and other Jews secretly counterfeited US and British currency (Nazis wanted to flood Allied markets with worthless currency; see The Counterfeiters [2007]) Sapinska returned home and retrieved Rutka’s diary Given communist repression and antisemitism He subsequently reached out to Auschwitz’s Museum and other Jewish institutions; none expressed interest in Rutka’s diary but after seeing unfamiliar faces in photographs who acknowledged his first family—and then never again spoke about them He identified and traveled to England to interview Rutka’s best friend Linka Gold When Szydlowski sent Yad Vashem a copy of Rutka’s diary it was validated; Sapinska brought the original there and donated it edited by Szydlowski and published by Yad Vashem Scherz and Szydlowski traveled extensively to arrange for the diary’s translation into 22 languages producer Amy Langer contacted Szydlowski about a theatrical version of Rutka’s story It segued to an October-November 2024 run of the youth-focused Rutka: A New Musical at Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park He invited everyone involved in it to visit Bedzin which he feels is essential to fully experience and understand Jewish life there in Rutka’s time As yet The Significance of Rutka’s Diary: What Impact Has It Had on Polish Youth The diaries of Rutka and Anne Frank both reveal typical teen anxieties Rutka’s firsthand account is much more graphic in its depictions of Nazi cruelty Scherz visited Bedzin on multiple occasions they recited excerpts and discussed the diary’s impact on them For adolescents who are at least two generations removed from WWII the diary provides an historical perspective previously unavailable to them accompanied by Sapinska and high school students playing Germans fully costumed reenactment of the ghetto’s evacuation for deportations Szydlowski stresses the need to educate Polish youth as they are the principal agents of change in attitudes towards Jews antisemitic graffiti and open antisemitism has been absent in Bedzin The jury is out on the ultimate impact of Rutka’s diary one cannot underestimate how one girl’s moving account of Jewish history and one historian’s attempt to keep her history and Bedzin’s alive can affect those who today may question its truths BBC. (2009) Rutka’s Notebook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnD_EtHqW44 (based on Adolph Burger’s The Devil’s Workshop: A Memoir of the Nazi Counterfeiting Operation; Oscar for Best Foreign Language film Szydlowski, A. (2010) Reenactment of the Evacuation of Bedzin Ghetto in 1943. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_-ZMIGHb5k&t=69s Rachel Kovacs, PhD, adjunct associate professor of communication at CUNY, also teaches Judaics locally, and is a PR professional, freelance writer, and theater reviewer for offoffonline.com. She trained in performance at Brandeis and Manchester Universities, Sharon Playhouse, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She can be reached at [email protected].