August 21 (Wednesday)
11.00 AM – History of the Jews of Brzeziny – lecture. Conducted by: Paweł Zybała, Director of the Regional Museum in Brzeziny. PL
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizers: Regional Museum in Brzeziny and Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
12:30 PM – Łódź Ghetto in Document: Stones of Memory directed by Jacek Tokarczyk, prod. TVP 3 Łódź [11 min.]. PL
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Description: The document "Stones of Memory" is an attempt to uncover the rich symbolism, monuments, and extraordinary mystical atmosphere of one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe. The kirkut on Bracka Street is also a testament to the multicultural past of Łódź - a city that, before World War II, was jointly built by Poles, Jews, Russians, and Germans. The custom of placing a stone on the grave of the deceased serves as a pretext for telling the story of this place, the practices of Judaism, and the people buried in the cemetery. For not everyone, Łódź became the "promised land." The greatest and wealthiest were laid to rest here - industrialists, patrons of the arts, artists, doctors, but also the poor residents of the city and its surroundings, ghetto prisoners, and anonymous victims of the Holocaust. However, as one of the protagonists of the report says, "this cemetery, contrary to appearances, is a history of life, not death."
1:00 PM – History of the Koluszki Shtetl – meeting with Zbigniew Komorowski, author of the book Sztetl Koluszki. Conducted by: Agnieszka Wilczek, Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź. PL
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: Many publications presenting the culture, customs, and daily life of Jews in Brzeziny, Łódź, Pabianice, Piotrków, and other places in central Poland already exist on the publishing market. Recently, a book on the pre-war Jewish community of Koluszki joined this collection. Published by the Łódź-based "Księży Młyn Publishing House," it is titled "Shtetl Koluszki." Its author is Zbigniew Komorowski, a journalist for the local newspaper "Tydzień w Koluszkach" and a history enthusiast. We are already familiar with the histories of Jewish communities in large Polish cities, as numerous historical publications have been released on this topic. Meanwhile, the account of the Holocaust of Jews from small towns still seems to be an unexplored chapter. "Shtetl Koluszki" is another publication that fills this gap. It is not a dry history detailing dates and events or the opinions of scholars, but a vivid story about specific people.
3:00 PM – Invisible - Exhibition Opening. Authors: Grzegorz Nawrot, Magdalena Zapolska-Downar. The exhibition will be available from August 21 to September 6, 2024. PL
Location: Łódź, Stary Rynek 2.
Organizer: Institute of National Remembrance, Łódź branch.
Description: The exhibition Invisible is based on the presentation of large-format photographic enlargements depicting the residents of the Litzmannstadt-Ghetto in the contemporary urban space. The aim of the arrangement is to create an impression of close contact with the individual fate of the people confined in the ghetto and to highlight the irrevocable and complete erasure of the city's Jewish citizens from its physical and spiritual space.
4.00 PM – 20th Anniversary of Survivors Park. First Walk. Conducted by: Grażyna Ojrzyńska, creator of Survivors Park. PL
Start: in front of the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź, Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: Grażyna Ojrzyńska is one of the people involved in the creation of the Survivors' Park. In 2004, she served as the city gardener. From the very beginning, she took care to preserve the diversity of the trees planted. She is an important figure for this place.
5.00 PM – Łódź Ghetto in Document and Photography – exhibition vernissage. Curator: Adriana Bryk. PL/ENG
Location: Survivors Park | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizers: State Archives in Łódź and Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Dr. Adriana Bryk – an employee of the State Archive in Łódź. Author of the source publication Untold History: Postcards from the Łódź Ghetto and articles in the field of archival science and history, including The System and Office of the State Enterprise of the Łódź District on the Example of the Union of Knitting and Hosiery Industry in Łódź, "The President's Best Child" – The Post in the Łódź Ghetto (1939–1944), as well as exhibitions popularizing the resources of the State Archive in Łódź, Sieradz Branch, which she heads.
6.00 PM – How did the steel harden, or how were the documents in the ghetto created? – meeting with Adriana Bryk, author of the book The Head of the Jewish Elders in Łódź 1939-1944. Archival Processes. PL
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizers: State Archives in Łódź and Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
August 22 (Thursday)
10.00 AM - Commemoration of the Jews of Zduńska Wola, ceremony at the Jewish cemetery in Łódź with the participation of the authorities of Zduńska Wola and the Museum of the History of Zduńska Wola. PL
Location: Jewish Cemetery in Łódź | Bracka Street 40.
Description: In the summer of 1942, hundreds of Jews from Pabianice, Bełchatów, Ozorków, Zelów, Wieluń, Stryków, Sieradz, Łask, and Zduńska Wola were brought to the Łódź ghetto. Transports arrived over many days, during which the Germans were liquidating the so-called provincial ghettos in the Wartheland, and residents not selected for further work in Litzmannstadt were deported to the extermination center in Chełmno nad Nerem. The arriving Jews told of the dramatic events that had befallen thousands of Jewish residents of the region during the liquidation of the ghettos. Details of the resettlement action were recorded in the Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto and, among others, in the diary of Dawid Sierakowiak. One of the transports from Zduńska Wola was particularly tragic. In the wagon, 28 bodies were found. They had died due to lack of air and water. They were buried in August 1942 along Avenue D in the Jewish cemetery. After the war, tombstones were erected. There will be a modest ceremony to pay tribute to the people of Zduńska Wola by the authorities and representatives of the city.
11.00 AM - Jews of Zduńska Wola. Everyday Life and Culture. Conducted by: Tomasz Polkowski, Director of the Museum of the History of Zduńska Wola. PL
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizers: Museum of the History of Zduńska Wola and Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: The main focus will be on presenting the history of Jewish settlement in Zduńska Wola, the role of Jews in the development of the city, and the professional and social structure, including migrations, birth rates, and life expectancy. It will cover the involvement of the Jewish community members in the political life of the city, particularly the role and significance of representatives in the city council from various political parties, ranging from Orthodox to Socialists. Daily life will also be depicted through the accounts of three Holocaust survivors and non-Jewish residents of Zduńska Wola. Naturally, an important aspect will be the issues related to the religiosity of this community, specifically the relationships between different Hasidic groups living in Zduńska Wola.
12.30 PM - Pabianice Ghetto in the Documentary: Sarid directed by Zbigniew Gajzler [49 min.]. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź and Macro-Film Production.
Description: Zbigniew Gajzler's documentary Sarid tells the story of Aleksander Bartal-Bicz, the sole survivor of his family during the Holocaust. Other Jewish survivors from Pabianice also share their experiences. This film simultaneously tells the story of the town from which about 8,000 citizens were expelled in the spring of 1942. Half were immediately sent to the extermination camp in Chełmno nad Nerem, where they were murdered. The rest, those stronger and fit for work, were taken by the Germans to the Łódź ghetto. According to the Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto, around 100 trams arrived from Pabianice in May, transporting 2,370 people. Several hundred Jews from Pabianice survived the war, but none remained in Pabianice.
5.00 PM - How Many Times Have Managed to Die, How Many More Times Will We Die. The Traveling Reading Room of the Dialogue Center (The Tree of Life by Chava Rosenfarb – last chapter). Conducted by: Joanna Podolska, Director of the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź. PL
Location: Survivors Park, Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: The third volume of Chava Rosenfarb's novel The Tree of Life covers the most tragic period in the history of the Łódź ghetto – from January 1942, when the deportations of the residents of the Jewish district in Litzmannstadt to the extermination center in Chełmno nad Nerem began, to the liquidation of the ghetto in August 1944. The characters, known from the previous volumes, face the most difficult choices. The volume ends at the moment of deportation from the Radegast station to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In accordance with the author's wish, the subsequent pages remain blank, symbolizing the inability to articulate the experience of the camps. The book closes with a return to the beginning, to life. As part of the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center's Wandering Library, we will read excerpts from the last chapter with Chava Rosenfarb's message to us, the descendants.
6.00 PM - "The trains are lined up and the people are not there". Liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto.- lecture. Conducting: Andrzej Grzegorczyk, curator at the Museum of Independence Traditions in Lodz. PL
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizers: Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź and Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: The weeks leading up to the final liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto, which took place in August 1944, were among the hardest in its history. Among its forced inhabitants, a sense of apathy and doubt prevailed alongside fear and uncertainty. The lecture will provide an opportunity to trace the decision-making process that led to the liquidation, the course of the liquidation itself, the reaction of the population to successive waves of deportations and the survival strategies undertaken at the time.
Andrzej Grzegorczyk, Curator at the Museum of Independence Traditions in Lodz, Radegast Station branch. His interests include the extermination of Jews during World War II with particular emphasis on the Lodz Ghetto and the history of the Kulmhof death camp in Chelmno nad Nerem. Member of the team of the project "Lexicon of the Lodz Ghetto" carried out by the Center for Jewish Research of the University of Lodz within the framework of the grant program of the National Program for the Development of Humanities. Participant in the Leaders of Dialogue program conducted by the Dialogue Forum Foundation. Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2023).
6.00 PM - Łódź Ghetto in the memories of witnesses of those days – walking tour. Conducted by: Renata Olczyk, Andrzej Żak, Center for Initiatives for the Development of REGIO. Participation is paid, PLN 20 / person, payment on the spot to the organizer. PL
Start: Łódź, Stary Rynek 2.
Organizer: Center for Initiatives for the Development of REGIO.
Description: During the walk, we will visit important places of the Łódź Ghetto and listen to eyewitness accounts. We will briefly move back to times whose memory should remain with us forever.
August 23 (Friday)
10.00 AM - Łódź Ghetto in a documentary: Lucie Cytryn-Bialer Do Not Envelop Me with Death directed by Piotr Zarębski [58 min.]. PL
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Description: The film tells the story of Lucie Cytryn Bialer, sister of the ghetto poet Abramek Cytryn.
11.00 AM – From Emails from Jerzy. The Story of the Terkeltaub Family from Łódź – lecture. Conducted by: Agnieszka Szygendowska, Institute of Tolerance. PL
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: Institute of Tolerance.
Description: George as a two-year-old child (then Jerzyk Terkeltaub) in 1940 found himself and his family behind the walls of Litzmannstadt-Getto. He survived, his parents and several other family members survived. George, now living in the USA, was willing to share his memories, documents, touching correspondence, and photographs. These materials (along with what was retrieved) formed the story of the multi-generational Lodz Terkeltaub family, whose ancestor, Rabi Saul Boruch Terkeltaub, came to our city from Grodzisk, and whose son Mendel died shot in the street in 1905. Jerzy's father, Saul before the war ran the family furniture factory at 12 Narutowicza St. There are tragic threads in this story - the deaths of seniors in the ghetto, Saul's brothers who disappeared without a trace, deaths in concentration camps, but also encouraging ones - survivors. The survivors are not only Jerzyk, his parents, his aunts, but also the girl they rescued from the death transport and took in. After their liberation from the camps they were sent to after the liquidation of the ghetto, they all started a new life already outside Poland, outside Lodz. Some, according to Georg, recalled the past fondly, while others avoided the memories.
5.00 AM – Elli and Valli Go to Litzmannstadt. Franz Kafka's Sisters in the Łódź Ghetto. ( a walk and multimedia lecture). Conducted by: Dr. hab. Przemysław Dakowicz, University of Łódź. PL
Start: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: Guardians of Memory Association.
Description: Franz Kafka died of tuberculosis in June 1924. He did not see the Europe of the 1930s and 1940s. Fortunately. When the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia, three sisters of the author of The Trial were still alive in Prague. They were all sent to ghettos and death camps. Ottla was deported to Terezin. She died in Auschwitz. Valerie (Valli) and Gabriele (Elli) ended up in one of the " Łódź" transports. Together with thousands of Prague Jews, they were transported by the Germans to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. They lived in Bałuty district until September 1942. A walk in their footsteps will also be another attempt to include them in the wreath of our memory.
August 24 (Saturday)
11:00 AM – Zula Pacanowska. Strike rumbles down the street – opening of Anka Leśniak’s art installation, Łódź Women’s Trail Foundation. PL
Location: 56 Zgierska St.
Organizer: Łódź Women’s Trail Foundation.
Description: A site-specific work by Anka Leśniak will recall the figure of Zula Pacanowska (1904-1942), leader of the underground movement, and the history of Jewish resistance in the Łódź Ghetto.
11:30 AM – Our only way is resistance. A walk following the trail of women activists of the underground movement in the Łódź Ghetto. Conducted by Ewa Kamińska-Bużałek, Izabela Olejnik, Łódź Women’s Trai Foundation. PL
Start: 56 Zgierska St.
Organizer: Łódź Women’s Trail Foundation.
3.00 PM – Unveiling of memorial stones – stolpersteins for the family of the Survivor Leon Weintraub. PL/ENG
Location: 2 Włókiennicza St.
Descrition: Leon Weintraub decided to commemorate his mother Nacha (Natalia) Wajntraub, who died in Birkenau in August 1944, and his sister Rajzla, who was murdered in Stutthof.
Leon Weintraub was born on January 1, 1926, in Łódź to the family of Szul-Szlomy, who passed away in 1927 in Łódź, and Natalia, who was killed in Auschwitz in 1944. To provide for her children (Leon had four sisters), his mother opened a small laundry at 2 Kamienna Street. Before the war broke out, he completed six grades of primary school, continuing his education until the schools in the ghetto were closed in the autumn of 1940.
In 2022, an extensive interview with Leon Weintraub conducted by Magdalena Jaros was published under the title "Reconciliation with Evil." Leon is also the subject of many documentaries and continues to lead meetings with young people in Germany and Poland, where he promotes Polish-Jewish dialogue.
3.30 PM – A boy from Kamienna Street. Meeting with Leon Weintraub, Survivor of the Łódź Ghetto. Conducted by: Karolina Karolak, The Tenement House of Hilary Majewski. PL/ENG
Location: InLodz21, 11 Włókiennicza Street.
Organizers: The Tenement House of Hilary Majewski and Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
6:00 – On the wrong side of history? The unwanted memory of the heroines of Łódź, Łódź Women’s Trail Foundation. Conducted by Marta Zdanowska, Łódź Women’s Trail. Foundation.
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre, 83 Wojska Polskiego St.
Organizer: Łódź Women’s Trail Foundation.
Discussion with the participation of Anka Leśniak, an artist, author of works devoted to “women unremembered in history”, including Zula Pacanowska, Joanna Ostrowska (historian, dealing with, among others, the forgotten victims of Nazism), Ewa Kamińska-Bużałek (President of the Łódzki Szlak Kobiet / Łódź Women’s Trail Foundation) and Joanna Podolska, (Director of Marek Edelman Dialogue Center).
25 August (Sunday)
10.00 AM – A walk through the Jewish cemetery. Conducted by: Rabbi of Lodz Dawid Szychowski and Dawid Gurfinkiel, President of the HaKoach Association. PL.
Start: Jewish Cemetery/Pre-burial House, entrance from Zmienna Street.
Entrance fee – cedakah for saving the cemetery monuments, PLN 10.
12.00 PM – The final path. A walk through the ghetto. Conducted by: Izabela Terela, Museum of the Traditions of Independence in Łódź. PL
Start: 6 Czarnieckiego St.
Organizer: Radegast Station - Museum of the Traditions of Independence in Łódź.
The walk is ticketed. Payment on the spot. Cost: PLN 10 (normal ticket), PLN 5 (seniors and other entitled groups).
3.00 PM – Unveiling of a mural in Łódź dedicated to writer and sculptor Zenia Marcinkowska Larsson. PL
Location: 25 Łagiewnicka St.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
4.00 PM – Zenia Marcinkowska Larsson. Sculptures. Memory. Words. Exhibition vernissage. Curator: Urszula Ula Chowaniec. The exhibition is accompanied by a performance inspired by the life and work of Zeni Marcinkowska Larsson. Artistic collaboration and performance: Izabela Maciejewska. Vernissage combined with the promotion of the first Polish edition of the book Shadows at the Wooden Bridge (translated from Swedish by Piotr Zettinger and Katarzyna Tubylewicz). PL/ENG
Location: Bałucka Gallery, Stary Rynek (Old Market Square) 2.
Organizers: Municipal Art Gallery in Łódź and Marek Edelman Dialogue Center.
Urszula (Ulla) Chowaniec: a literary scholar specializing in women's history. She lives in Stockholm, is a lecturer at Lund University, and also serves as a professor at Andrzej Frycz-Modrzewski Academy in Krakow.
She is the author of books including: "In Search of a Woman: On the Early Novels of Irena Krzywicka" (2007), "Melancholic Migrating Bodies in Contemporary Polish Women's Writing" (2015). She creates podcasts and organizes academic and artistic events. She is the curator of the exhibition "One Hundred Years, so What?" - dedicated to the centenary of women's emancipation in Poland (Birmingham, 2018), content consultant for the exhibition on Irony (Torun 2024), co-organizer of festivals, including "Queer the Other Europe UCL" (London).
Izabela Maciejewska: visual artist. Sculptor, photographer, performer, painter. Creates installations and video art. Graduate of art schools in Lodz: Wł.Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz and L. Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television and Theater PWSFTviT in Lodz.
6.00 PM – The women writers of the Łódź Ghetto – walk. Guided by: Joanna Podolska, Director of Marek Edelman Dialogue Center. ENG
Start: Bałucka Gallery, Stary Rynek (Old Market Square) 2.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
7.30 PM – Undying love – film screening and meeting with Simone Lucas and Helene Klawski (Canada) – Second and Third generation of Holocaust Survivors. Conducted by: Jolanta Lechowska-Białecka, Marek Edelman Dialogue Center. PL/ENG
Location: Centrum Dialogu im. M. Edelmana | ul. Wojska Polskiego 83.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
26 August (Monday)
10.00 AM – Presentation of documents from Łodź Getto from the State Archive in Łódź, group up to 30 people. Conducted by Dr. Kamila Pawełczyk-Dura. ENG
Presentation only in English.
Registration: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Location: State Archive in Łódź, Plac Wolności 1.
Organizer: State Archive in Łódź.
10.00 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Arnold Mostowicz Fotoamator Dariusz Jabłoński [55 min.]. PL/ENG
Location: Centrum Dialogu im. M. Edelmana | ul. Wojska Polskiego 83.
11.00 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Radegast directed by Borys Lankosz [50 min]. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Description: Borys Lankosz's film is based on a screenplay by Andrzej Bart. It tells the story of the Lodz ghetto through one of the important passages in its history, when 20,000 Jews from Europe arrived in the ghetto in the fall of 1941. Trains brought people coming from European metropolises - Berlin, Vienna, Prague - to the Radegast Station.
4.00 PM – That was our youth. Crumbs od Memory - meeting with – Zofia Lubińska-Rosset, the Survivor of the Łódź Ghetto. Conducted by: Michalina Majewska, Kino po żydowsku. PL/ENG.
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83/amphitheatre.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Zofia Lubińska-Rosset, a survivor of the Łódź ghetto, published her memoirs entitled "Crumbs of Memory" in 2022. Her story about the life and cruelty of World War II is another publication of the Dialogue Center Library in the "People" series. When the war broke out, little Zosia was only six years old. In 1940, she and her parents were sent to the Łódź ghetto. She survived the Great Szpera, the liquidation of the ghetto, and then the camps in Ravensbrűck, Königs Wusterhausen, and Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen. For a long time, she didn't want to talk about talk about their experiences. After many years, she decided to write her story.
5.00 PM – That was our youth. Reconciliation with evil. – meeting with Leon Weintraub, the Sirvivor of the Łódź Getto. Conducted by: Michalina Majewska, Kino po żydowsku. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83/amphitheatre.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Leon Weintraub was born on 1 January 1926 in Łódź in the family of Szul-Szloma, who died in 1927 in Łódź, and Natalia, who died in 1944 in Auschwitz. In order to provide for her children (Leon had 4 more sisters), his mother opened a small laundry at 2 Kamienna Street. Until the outbreak of the war, he completed 6 grades of primary school, and then continued it until the schools in the ghetto were closed in the autumn of 1940.
6.30 PM – Mira lived on Wólczańska Street - a meeting with Nina Halden Ronnlund about the life and work of Mira Teeman - a Survivor of the Łódź Ghetto. Conducted by: Joanna Podolska, director of the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: Before the war, Mira Teeman lived at 17 Wólczańska Street. In Sweden, she was involved in translation and writing. Her daughter Nina Halden Ronnlund, who researches the history of her family and Łódź roots, will talk about her life.
27 August (Tuesday)
10.00 AM – A walk around the Jewish cemetery. Conducted by: Edyta Jerzyńska and Guardians of Memory Association. PL
Start: Jewish Cemetery/Pre-burial House, entrance from Zmienna Street.
Entrance fee – tzedakah to preserve the cemetery monuments, PLN 10.
Organizer: Guardians of Memory Association.
10.00 AM – Presentation of documents from Łodź Getto from the State Archive in Łódź, group up to 30 people. Conducted by Dr. Adriana Bryk. PL
Presentation only in Polish.
Registration: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Location: State Archive, Plac Wolności 1.
Organizer: State Archive in Łódź.
10.00 AM – The Łódź Ghetto in a documentary: Dawid Sierakowiak’s diary, dir. Michał Bukojemski [55 min.]. PL/ENG.
The 100th anniversary of Dawid Sierakowiak's birth
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź, 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
12.00 PM – A walk around the Jewish cemetery. Guided by: Justyna Tomaszewska, city guide Just Łódź. ENG
Start: Jewish cemetery/ Pre-Burial House, entrance from Zmienna Street
Entrance fee – tzedakah to preserve the cemetery monuments, PLN 10.
Registration at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
3.00 PM – A song about eternal being - the opening of the exhibition for the 20th anniversary of the Survivors' Park. Graphic design and curated by Pola Wlodarczyk. EN/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
HOW TO TALK ABOUT WAR WITH CHILDREN?
3.30 PM – The Łódź Ghetto in the documentary: From the Depths I Call by Wojtek Gierłowski [25 min.]. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
4.00 PM – How to talk about war with children? – screening of the animation Jutka's Insomnia and a conversation with the author of the book Dorota Combrzyńska-Nogala and the animation director Maria Gorlich-Opyd. Moderator: dr Karolina Kołodziej, University of Łódź. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Organizers: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź and EgoFilm.
5.00 PM – Memory and Denial - a debate with the descendants of the Survivors of the Łódź Ghetto: Aaron Krochmalnik (Germany), Uri Wizenberg (Israel), Ala Elczewska (Denmark), Marek Kleiman (USA), Nina Halden Ronnlund (Sweden), Witold Rosset (Poland). PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
7.00 PM – Concert Jewish Street. Performers: Izabela Szafrańska, Przemysław Zalewski (keyboards), Marcin Drabik (violin), Przemysław Skałuba (clarinet, duduk, saxophones). PL/ENG
Admission is free, the number of seats is limited.
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
28 August (Wednesday)
SURVIVORS’ DAY/ 20th Anniversary of Survivors’ Park in Łódź
10:00 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Marian Turski My Most Important Day Michał Bukojemski [67 min.]. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
11:15 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Mietek Wajntraub/Mitchell Winthrop Lessons from Mitch, dir. Klaudia Siczek [10 min.] ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Description: Mitchell (Mitch) Winthrop is Mietek Weintraub, born in Lodz to a middle-class family in 1926, a student at the private Kacenelson Gymnasium, a fun guy - as he refers to himself, forced to live in the ghetto since 1940. There he had to learn to work and fight to survive. His father died in the ghetto from starvation, his mother and family members died in the camps, but he survived and wanted to live. Klaudia Siczek's film tells of a man full of optimism and joy of life, whose passion became billiards. He has spent his free time in the billiard club for 50 years, while infecting others with his smile and sense of humor. In 2012, he wrote the memoir "The Arrival: I sought God in Hell." The documentary was made by the granddaughter of Marian Turski, Mitch's peer.
11:30 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Leon Kowner Leon loves the sea and we love Leon and Art_opening_1940 by Elyasaf Kovner. [10 min.] ENG
11:45 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Tova ben Zvi Tova's World Michał Bukojemski [37 min.]. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
12:30 PM – Survivors in the documentary: Leon Weintraub Leon – the boy who survived hell, author: Jacek Tokarczyk, prod. TVP3 Łódź for TVP Historia [13 min.]. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Description: Leon Weintraub is 96 years old. He is one of the last living "Lodzermensch". Born and raised in Lodz, imprisoned in the city's ghetto, Holocaust Survivor. He lives in Sweden on a daily basis, but visits his hometown exceptionally eagerly and as often as possible.
02:00 PM – Survivors in the documentary: Halina Elczewska Halina Elczewska in Łódź produced by Marek Edelman Dialogue Center. [27 min.] PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Description: Until the outbreak of war, Halina and her sisters, the elder Jadwiga and Inka, lived at 3/5 Łąkowa St. She studied at the Orzeszkowa Gymnasium at 21 Kosciuszko Avenue.
After the outbreak of war, the family moved to the Bałuty area, in the ghetto they lived at 39 Brzezińska St. They survived in the ghetto almost to the end, until liquidation. They were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on August 24, 1944, where her husband, parents and younger sister Inka died.
After the war, Halinka was vice mayor of Mieroszow, then moved with Jadwiga and her husband, Arnold Mostowicz, to Wroclaw, where she was director of the school of company counselors.
In August 2004, on the initiative of Halina Elczewska, with the support of Mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki, the Survivors' Park is established in Lodz.
3:00 PM – 20th anniversary of the Survivors' Park. Walk two. Guided by: Grażyna Ojrzyńska (guiding in Polish) and Justyna Tomaszewska (guiding in English). PL/ENG
Start: parking in front of the Dialogue Center building, 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
4:00 PM – Ceremony of awarding new trees of remembrance. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: City of Łódź and Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: Since 2004, memorial trees dedicated to people or families who survived the war have been planted in the Survivors' Park. Every year new names are added. They are planted by Survivors, or their descendants, children, sometimes grandchildren, who come from different parts of the world. At the moment, there are already over 660 memorial trees in the Survivors' Park.
5:00 PM – Our youth gave us strength – a talk with Marian Turski, a Survivor of the Łódź Ghetto, about youth organisations in the Łódź Ghetto and with Dr Ewa Wiatr from the Filip Friedman Centre for Jewish Research at the University of Łódź. Conducted by: Joanna Podolska, PhD, Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: Practically immediately after the closing of the ghetto, hundreds of young people, instead of going to cramped apartments in the densely built urban area of the ghetto, took up residence in small houses in Marysin and began to organize their lives according to kibbutz patterns. Gradually, other groups of young people were formed, linked primarily by political or religious beliefs, environmental or social ties. The young people had gardens and orchards under their care, learned to work the land, but also did other jobs. Above all, however, they organized cultural life and self-education groups, libraries, lectures, interest groups, and published a newspaper. Young people in the ghetto discussed literature and politics, argued about the future postwar shape of Poland and what the new Jewish state should look like. But they also helped each other. Although the groups gradually disbanded, the young people continued to meet in each other's homes and often supported each other. In many cases, the bonds stood the test of time and even lasted for decades. We'll talk about youth organizations in the Lodz ghetto with researcher Dr. Ewa Wiatr and, most importantly, Survivor Marian Turski.
6:30 PM – Concert in the park on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Survivors' Park. Performer: Sounds of Memory Robert Stefański clarinet. PL
Location: Survivors' Park | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Free admission.
7:00 PM – Concert in the park on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Survivors' Park. Performer: Trace of presence Katarzyna Jackowska-Enemuo: singing, akordeon. PL
Location: Survivors' Park | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Free admission.
8:00 PM – Do not despair / Nie rozpaczaj - a concert dedicated to the Survivors of the Łódź Ghetto. Performers: Alan Bern (piano), Sveta Kundish (vocals), Mark Kovnatskiy (violin), Fabian Schnedler (vocals), Martin Lillich (double bass). PL/ENG
Location: Survivors' Park | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Free admission.
Throughout the day, a stand with books published by the Dialogue Centre and books by the University of Lodz will be available.
30 August (Friday)
10.00 AM - Survivors in the documentary: Hana Svirski Hana Svirski Dariusz Bargieł [59 min.]. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
11.00 AM - Meeting with Survivor Hanna Svirski. Conducted by: Michał Adamiak, Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź. PL/ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
12.00 AM - (after) Jewish. Inconvenient Memory – a meeting with Agnieszka Dobkiewicz, the author of the book. Conducted by: Agnieszka Wilczek, Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź. PL
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
01.30 PM - Unveiling of memorial stones – Stolpersteins for Szymon Leder and Ewa nee Heyman and their son Artur - the family of Andrzej Stankiewicz. PL/ENG
Location: Łódź, 140 Wólczańska St.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: Andrzej Stankiewicz decided to commemorate his great-grandparents - Szymon Leder and Ewa née Heyman and their son Artur, murdered in the ghettos of Częstochowa and Warsaw.
Szymon (Szewach) Leder was an industrialist from Łódź, co-owner of a dyeing and finishing factory for cotton goods at Kątna Street. In the years 1921-1932, the Leder family owned the so-called Ryszard Geyer's Villa at 3 Czerwona Street, currently the seat of the District Medical Chamber in Łodź.
In 2023, the Sorus publishing house published a book by Andrzej Stankiewicz, titled "Mieszaniec". This book, based on many years of research into the history of the Jewish and non-Jewish parts of his family, describes, among other things, the fate of Szymon and Ewa Leder. An interesting fact is that Stankiewicz’s non-Jewish grandfather, Józef Namysłowski, as an attorney of the Special Criminal Court in Łódź, prosecuted the German torturers of the Łódź Ghetto in post-war trials.
05.00 PM - Zula Pacanowska - doomed to oblivion? Lecture as part of the series "Women of Łódź (unknown)" at the Museum of the City of Łódź. EN
Paid participation. Normal ticket - 7 PLN, reduced ticket - 5 PLN can be purchased at the ticket office of the museum.
Location: Museum of the City of Lodz |15 Ogrodowa Street.
Organizator: Museum of the City of Lodz and Lodz Women's Trail Foundation.
06.00 PM - What can spatial research tell us of the Jews of Lodz before WWII – lecture. Conducted by: Ruthie Kaplan, University of Haifa. ENG
Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Description: Spatial Research of the Jewish Middle Class of Łódź, Poland, During the Interwar Period. How did a century of Jewish settlement and its everchanging transformation in Łódź affect the Jewish way of life, on the one hand, and the urban landscape, on the other hand? The Jews of Łódź were thoroughly explored. However, research regarding the Jewish community was mainly historical and economic. Very few studies dealt with the physical form of Jewish settlement in Łódź. Following the spatial turn in Jewish studies, this paper explores the urban space of Łódź's Jewish middle class during the interwar period, a period of changes and challenges when the Jewish community had reached its maximum size. A different approach to historical sources—a spatial approach— allows not only visualization of information but also thorough investigation of urban processes.
31 August (Saturday)
10.00 AM - Litzmannstadt Ghetto Holocaust Memorial. On the 20th anniversary of the Holocaust memorial. Walk. PL
Start: in front of the wooden building of the Radegast Station Branch, 12 Litzmannstadt Ghetto Victims Memorial Avenue.
Organizer: Museum of the Independence Traditions in Lodz.
Description: Walking tour devoted to the idea of creating a memorial site and architectural assumptions of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto Holocaust Memorial.
Free event. No registration necessary
11.00 AM - We are one piece of longing. A walk in the footsteps of Jewish women in the Łódź ghetto. Guided by: Ewa Kamińska-Bużałek, Izabela Olejnik, Łódź Women's Trail Foundation. PL
Start: meeting in front of the Bałucki Market Square hall from the side of Zgierska Street.
Organizer: Lodz Women's Trail Foundation.
12.00 AM - Litzmannstadt Ghetto Holocaust Memorial. Discussion with the creators and initiators of the monument. PL
Start: Radegast Station Branch, , 12 Litzmannstadt Ghetto Victims Memorial Avenue.
Organizer: Museum of Independence Traditions in Lodz.
Description: On the 20th anniversary of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto Holocaust Memorial, we will recall the history of the creation of the memorial in conversation with its initiators and creators.
Free event. Registration is not required.
16.00 - Artists of Łódź in the times of Holocaust discussion in Museum of City Łódź. Tickets: 5 PLN (reduced ticket), 7 PLN (normal ticket). PL
Registration unnecessary
Location: Łódź, Ogrodowa St. 15.
Organizer: Museum of City Łódź.
Description: The meeting will be held on the occasion of the anniversary of the dissolution of the Litzmannstadt ghetto. It will commemorate artists of Jewish origin and their experience of the Nazi occupation of Europe. They escaped from the Western cultural centres to the free zone in the south of France or to neutral Switzerland. With the Polish army, they moved to England and fought as Allied soldiers. But many were interned in concentration camps or died in ghettos.
ACCOMPANYLING EVENTS
- International conference "Metropolis by Accident? Jewish Łódź from the 19th Century to the Present," August 25-27. Organizer: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Mordechaja Anielewicza Street 6, 00-157 Warsaw.
- Singer's Warsaw: The Łódź Ghetto in Literature – a lecture by Joanna Podolska, PhD (Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź / University of Łódź) as part of the Singer's Warsaw Jewish Culture Festival. PL/ENG
Location: Austrian Cultural Forum in Warsaw, 7/9 Próżna Street.
ALL-YEAR EVENTS
- Educational package – a series of lectures "ŁÓDZKIE GHETTO 1940-1944." February – August. Organizers: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź, Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź, Filip Friedman Center for Jewish Studies UŁ, Center for Jewish Culture Research UŁ.
- Educational package – offer for school groups. February – December. Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
- Educational package – lessons around the mobile exhibition "Holocaust of Jews in Europe." April. Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź, Institute of National Remembrance Łódź branch.
- Meetings with members of the Children of the Holocaust Association.
- "The Extermination of Jewish Towns," organizer: Institute of National Remembrance Łódź branch. Vernissage June 7, exhibition open until June 28. Location: Manufaktura, Ogrodowa Street, 91-065 [entrance through the clock gate].