How was the Shoah possible? From dehumanisation to extermination. The next meeting in our educational project

On 15.09.2023, the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna hosted a meeting around the question of the determinants of the Shoah tragedy.  Rachela Antosz-Rekucka, a psychologist/doctoral student at the Doctoral School in the Social Sciences at the Jagiellonian University, tried to answer the question: how does it happen that "ordinary" people commit such unimaginable evil. Dehumanisation, indifference, scapegoating, stigmatisation, isolation - these are the successive steps leading to multifaceted violence and extermination, which the presenter discussed one by one.

The meeting began with the reading of excerpts from Mr Marian Turski's speech on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, about the successive, unseen steps in the preparation of the Shoah by the German Nazis. This is an important warning about the fact that "Auschwitz did not fall from the sky", but "it tread in small steps". - Later on, we returned to the words of Mr Marian, referring to the threat of the return of the tragedy if we are indifferent to evil, the violation of minority rights and the law in general, the stigmatisation of social or national groups.

During the discussion after the lecture, difficult questions were asked, such as how it is possible that manifestations of anti-Semitism still occur, also in our town, and that those who have the courage to raise the subject of a difficult past are stigmatised. Thank you for these brave words and your presence at this and our other events!

However, we did not end with sadness, but with a message of hope and good wishes, as the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, was just beginning. Participants were therefore treated to, among other things, round challah, cake, pomegranate fruit salad, apples, nuts and carrots in honey - so that the coming time would be sweet, good, full of peace and love.

The meeting was a part of this year's edition of the project 'A Tale of the Bicultural, Pre-War Mszana Dolna', and was held under the Honorary Patronage of the Town Mayor, Anna Pękała.

It was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the programme EtnoPolska of the National Centre of Culture. Edition 2023 (grant acquisition: Marek Rekucki)

We would like to thank Mr Marian Turski for allowing us to use his texts, and for his kindness and support for us in our activities, as well as his touching dedication in the book “XI: Thou shall not be indifferent!”

Before the event started, representatives of our Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation presented the host of the venue, Agnieszka Orzeł, with a congratulatory letter on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna and donated books for the library, thanking for fruitful cooperation and for creating a place for dialogue, empathy, exchange of ideas and creation of culture.