Another volunteer action at the Jewish cemetery and the mass grave at Pańskie

After the weather sensations, there were many broken branches in the Jewish cemetery, which, fortunately, did not damage the gravestones, but needed to be collected and tidied up. The windstorms also carried a lot of leaves and various rubbish.

On 12.09.2023, a group of twenty-two young volunteers from Primary School No. 2 in Mszana Górna with their teachers, Messrs: Marta Malarz and Ewelina Płachczyńska-Struś, as well as a group of our tried and tested friends, plus our three-person representation set to work. After a short training session on the rules of behaviour in the Jewish cemetery, everyone set off to clean up. The youngsters remembered to wear headgear and to behave with dignity at the memorials. Several bags of bio-waste and slightly less rubbish were collected.

After completing their work at the cemetery, the volunteers still had enough strength and enthusiasm to continue working on the mass grave at Pańskie, and in the process learn something about the dramatic history of the site. The young people from Mszana Górna were here for the first time. And in both Pańskie and the cemetery, Jews from the entire municipality, including Mszana Górna, were buried.

The representative of our Foundation, Jakub Antosz-Rekucki, talked about the tragic events of 19.08.1942, when almost the entire Jewish community of Mszana Dolna and the surrounding area perishe, and about our care for this place. The photographs of the Victims, which we placed at their common grave for the 81st Anniversary of the Holocaust, made a great impression on the young people.

The works were part of the Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation's educational project 'The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna. Edition 2023". It was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the programme of the National Heritage Institute - Together for Heritage.

We also continued the project 'Commemorating the Shaoh Victims in Mszana Dolna with a monument bearing the names, surnames and ages of the murdered'. It was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund. The project was co-financed by the Jewish Historical Institute Association, the Dialogue Forum and the PZU Foundation.